Exclusive: Social marketplace GoCoop raises funding from Kris Gopalakrishnan, Saha Fund

GoCoop Solutions and Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs social marketplace for cooperative enterprises GoCoop.com, has received investment worth $830,000 from former Infosys vice-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan and Saha Fund, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

It could not be immediately ascertained whether it was the company's Series A round of investment. E-mail queries sent to investors and the company did not elicit a response at the time of writing this report.

Launched in early 2012, GoCoop.com's or Global Collabration Platform for Cooperatives' marketplace acts as an aggregator of listed enterprises. It is a social marketplace to buy and source handmade apparels, home furnishings, fabrics, crafts and more directly from weavers and artisans.

The company was founded by Siva Devireddy. An alumnus of Arizona State University, Devireddy had worked with Accenture and Exemplary Inc prior to starting up.

According to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle, it had raised two rounds of funding previously. In 2013, GoCoop had raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Indian Angel Network and Unitus Seed Fund. It had also raised $290,000 from existing investors, Splice Capital and a bunch of individual investors.

Gopalakrishnan has earlier backed electric bikes company Ampere Vehicles.

Saha Fund invests between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 6 crore and picks up an equity stake of anywhere between 5% and 30%. It invests across e-commerce, social media, mobile, cloud, analytics, education, healthcare, food tech and tech segments, and mostly in companies with women in senior management, companies that make products and services aimed at women and firms with over 50% female workforce.

The fund's first investment was made in Kaaryah, which operates an e-commerce site selling women's fashion wear besides offering its products through third-party e-tailers. This was followed by investments in Fitternity, an online fitness discovery platform; and Stelae Technologies, a cloud-based content conversion software solutions provider.

In 2016, the fund invested in JoulestoWatts, a Bangalore-based staffing solutions firm; and Gingercrush, an on-demand platform for customising licensed products.

In the social impact segment, Ahmedabad-based mobile tech startup focused on social enterprises Awaaz De Infosystems Pvt. Ltd has raised an undisclosed amount from Mumbai-based investor Samir Shah.

According to Impact Investors Council, a group of social venture capitalists in India, investments into enterprises that strive to make a positive social or environmental impact in the country will likely double in the next four years.

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