Exclusive: Crowdsourced work marketplace Playment gets funding from SAIF Partners

Playment, a mobile marketplace for crowdsourced work, has raised Rs 4.7 crore ($700,000) from venture capital firm SAIF Partners, joining a handful of startups operating in a nascent segment in attracting investors.

The transaction values Playment, run by Bangalore-based Crowdflux Technology Pvt Ltd, at $2.86 million, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle, based on filings with the Registrar of Companies.

SAIF Partners and Crowdflux didn't respond to email queries seeking details of the transaction.

BMR Legal acted as the legal adviser to SAIF Partners for the transaction.

The startup was launched last year by Siddharth Mall, Ajinkya Malasane and Akshay Lal. Malasane is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati whereas Mall and Lal graduated from IIT Kharagpur and previously worked at e-commerce marketplace Flipkart.

According to its website, the technology platform has tied up with companies such as Flipkart, Myntra, Paytm and Shopclues, and helps them assign their tasks through crowdsourcing such as making phone calls to an individual or business. Upon completion, the players will earn certain points which they can redeem as Paytm Cash and gift cards of various shopping websites.

Playment also offers services include cataloging, algorithm training and testing, data tagging, content moderation, data collection and market research to those companies.

The platform claims that in terms of content moderation it enables spam checks, moderation of user posts, reviews on websites, maintenance of app and social media channels through crowdsourcing.

Providing services through crowdsourcing is an emerging area and hasn't seen many deals. SquadRun, another startup in the category, had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in early 2015 from entrepreneurs in India such as Amit Ranjan of Slideshare, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, Toppr founder Zishaan Hayath and Girish Khera, co-­founder of Scientific Animations.

The Panel Station is another website that helps various companies in their surveys on consumer goods, technology, healthcare, travel and finance through crowdsourcing. Once the survey is completed, the participant can earn points that can be redeemed for Paytm, FreeCharge, Flipkart and Amazon vouchers.

Globally, TaskRabbit is the biggest player in the segment. It has raised about $37.5 million from multiple investors since its launch in 2008. Fiverr, oDesk and Freelancer are other big global players in the segment.

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