Excl: Social audience discovery & retargeting platform Tookitaki secures angel funding from Srijan Capital, others

Tookitaki, a social audience discovery and retargeting platform operated by Kolkata-based startup Social Audience Pvt Ltd, has raised Rs 12 lakh in angel funding from Bangalore-based tech startup incubator-cum-seed fund Srijan Capital, in addition to an undisclosed sum from a few other angel investors.

Other angels who invested in the startup are Aakrit Vaish, director of Flurry Inc.; Miten Sampat, VP (product strategy) at Neustar; Anuj Pulstya, member of the Indian Angel Network; Maneesh Bhandari, investor director at Framebench; Anand Ladsariya, owner of Everest Flavours, and Nitin Agarwal, owner of NM Fashions.

Tookitaki, which is in the current batch of iAccelerator (a flagship programme of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad), will utilise the money for online promotion and hiring, a top executive of Srijan Capital told Techcircle.in.

Other angels who invested in the startup are Aakrit Vaish, director of Flurry Inc.; Miten Sampat, VP (product strategy) at Neustar; Anuj Pulstya, member of the Indian Angel Network; Maneesh Bhandari, investor director at Framebench; Anand Ladsariya, owner of Everest Flavours, and Nitin Agarwal, owner of NM Fashions.

"The fundraising assumes importance, given the fact Tookitaki is still under incubation and the demo day is not over yet," said Srijan Capital's founder Ravi Trivedi. "A group of angels have also invested in the company."

When contacted for more details on funding, Tookitaki founder Abhishek Chatterjee said he could not disclose the total amount as the company is waiting for the demo day on Jan 25 when it would be seeking more funds.

Set up in June 2012 by Abhishek Chatterjee and Jeeta Bandhopadhyay, Tookitaki is a social audience discovery platform that helps enterprises reach out to their target audience and enables companies to identify, rate and connect to people who are interested in their products or services. The startup claims that other tools like online display ads and e-mail campaigns can only ensure broad exposure, but fail to nurture, engage and monetise target groups.

In contrast, Tookitaki has built a likeness engine and tracks data from Facebook and LinkedIn (Twitter to be incorporated soon) around any content using semantic search and creates communities where members have similar social profiles. Plus, the platform helps enterprises leverage the persuasive approach of identified social contacts for word-of-mouth publicity.

Founded in July 2011, Srijan Capital is an India-focused tech startup incubator-cum-seed fund that typically invests Rs 2-15 lakh. However, at the top end, it can stretch to as much as Rs 50 lakh. In an earlier interview with Techcircle, Trivedi said it was looking to incubate 6-10 ideas and would invest in four companies by 2015.

Srijan Capital primarily focuses on startups operating in the e-commerce, SaaS, mobile and social media space. Till date, it has invested in three companies including mobile app provider Aurality and ConsumerDaddy, a consumer complaints registration platform besides a startup in the events ticketing space. It is currently incubating online coupons and discounts startup CouponRani.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)