Crowdfunding platform Wishberry raises pre-Series A funding

Mumbai-based Wishberry Online Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs and operates crowdfunding platform Wishberry for creative artists, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding led by iSPIRT's Sharad Sharma.

Rajan Anandan (vice president, South East Asia and India, Google), Amit Ranjan (co-founder, SlideShare), Alok Mittal (founder, Indifi Technologies) and Venkat S Raju (chief executive, Kyron Global) also participated in the round, said a company statement on Wednesday.

"There are already three films crowdfunded on Wishberry, which have won the National Award...It's great to have investors who believe in us..." said Priyanka Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive, Wishberry, in the statement.

In January 2015, Wishberry had raised $650,000 (Rs 4 crore) co-led by Google India's Anandan and iSPIRT's Sharma. The round also saw participation from 42 other investors, including entrepreneurs such as MakeMyTrip founder and chief executive Deep Kalra and Ranjan of SlideShare, music composer Shankar Mahadevan, and SEBI board member Mohandas Pai, among others.

The Mumbai-based startup was founded by ex-McKinsey consultants Priyanka Agarwal and Anshulika Dubey in mid-2012. Wishberry claims to have raised more than Rs 10 crore ($1.5 million) from over 350 crowdfunded projects spanning films, music, theatre, dance, and more. The company says it has an active community of over 18,000 funders from more than 850 cities, across 55 countries.

Lately, crowdfunding platforms have attracted a lot of investor interest. In April 2016, crowdfunding startup Impact Guru had secured $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore) in seed funding from Singapore-based venture capital firm RB Investments and Fundnel, a Southeast Asia-based private investment platform.

In January 2016, crowdfunding platform BitGiving had raised an undisclosed amount from Wazir Advisors founder and managing director Harminder Sahni, Capillary Technologies co-founder Krishna Mehra and Impulse Marketing's co-founder Sanjay Bakshi, among others.