Mobile ad platform PayTunes gets funding from CIO Angel Network

CIO Angel Network (CAN) has made an undisclosed amount of investment in mobile advertising platform PayTunes, run by Real Time Networks Pvt Ltd.

Angel investors Sanjay Mehta and Anoop Mathur led the round with other members from CAN.

"Mobile advertising is currently the hottest area in the advertising industry and brands are looking at newer innovative ways to reach the mobiles of their consumers," said Mehta. "Most of the digital advertising avenues have for long focused only on in-app and website banner ads. This audio-based ad delivery model is disruptive and holds global potential."

The new capital will be utilised for customer acquisition and product development.

PayTunes is an Android platform that helps brands reach their mobile consumers through audio ads. It replaces the ringtones of users' mobiles with ad jingles. In return, it allots reward points to users on every incoming call. Users can later redeem their points through free recharges and bill payments. The company claims to have notched up more than 10,000 users within 14 days of its launch.

The Delhi-based startup was founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi alumni Divya Pratap Singh and Rakesh Sehgal, along with Gaurav Tiwari, who has previously worked in the FMCG and IT sectors.

"With PayTunes, we are trying to create a unique way to reach these users via audio ad-jingles, where brands can target their campaigns in a cost-effective way by using the PayTunes platform's capability to deliver dynamic content to its users based on demographics, location and user interests," said Singh. "PayTunes is a mass product and will soon disrupt the digital advertising industry which is still in the nascent stages of growth, " added Singh.

The adtech space in India is dominated by players such as InMobi, which had recently raised $100 million in fresh debt from a consortium of lenders led by US-based Tennenbaum Capital Partners.

CIO Angel Network, which was set up earlier this year, has participated in the Rs 3 crore seed funding round for Instasafe Technologies.