Travel entertainment startup PressPlay raises $2.2M from Sequoia, others

New Delhi-based Press Play Pvt Ltd, a travel entertainment startup launched by former Zomato executives and operates under the PressPlay  brand, has raised $2.2 million (over 13 crore) in seed funding from Sequoia Capital and a few angel investors, it said on Tuesday.

The funds will be used to improve the current product by investing more in technology and talent for scaling up the tech team and for geographical expansion.

It had started off by renting-out tablets with pre-loaded content for Rs 100 to bus passengers. It pivoted to launch Wi-Fi services on buses wherein the users can access entertainment content on their own Wi-Fi connected devices.

It is currently working on increasing user engagement on the PressPlay app both in and out of the PressPlay Wi-Fi network.

PressPlay claims to have 50,000 users a month and is aiming to double it in two months. It plans to explore other verticals for expansion and launch another product—that it has been working on—in six months.

"All the content on the PressPlay network is consumed on mobile and this is very exciting place to be in. The investors believe in the team's long-term vision of solving the problem of content discovery and consumption, and in our ability to execute this vision," said Anand Sinha, co-founder and CEO, PressPlay.

"We will be launching a couple of new products this year. We have already started work and are scaling up our tech team," he added.

PressPlay was founded in December 2013 by Sinha and George Abraham. Prior to setting up PressPlay, Sinha was national head (sales) at Zomato UAE, while Abraham led sales at Zomato India.

To start with, Sinha launched a pilot project in April 2014 by travelling to Amritsar in a bus with 10 tablets pre-loaded with five movies each. He pitched for Rs 100 and managed to get users for the same.

Later, the company launched Wi-Fi services across select public buses in India.

Last August it had raised $500,000 in angel funding from a group of unnamed investors.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)