LetsIntern co-founder's influencer marketing firm Chtrbox in talks for VC funding

Influencer marketing firm Chtrbox is in talks with institutional investors to raise fresh capital, a top executive told TechCircle.

"We are in talks with venture funds and companies, though we are not in a hurry for funding," said Chtrbox's co-founder and chief executive officer Pranay Swarup.

Swarup said the startup had earlier raised angel funding of Rs 1 crore (around $147,000) from television personalities Roshan Abbas and Gaurav Kapur.

He added that fresh capital would be used for building technology and access to more than 1.5 lakh influencers.

Run by Mumbai-based Chatterbox Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the startup was founded in April 2016 by Swarup, Rohit Raj and Varun Duggirala.

The company analyses data of engagement levels of around 3.5 lakh influential marketers on social media and connects them with different brands and agencies.

"We use data analysis to come up with who could be the best influencer for a certain brand or who could be value for money for the brands. Our platform can do a keyword analysis through natural language processing (NLP) to find that automatically," said Swarup.

Chtrbox's clients include brands such as OnePlus, Adidas, HP, Yatra, Godrej, Star Movies, Hike messenger, Nokia, and Flipkart, among others.

"We have seen how large-scale digital penetration has changed marketing for brands in China with WeChat and other social media platforms," said Roshan Abbas, managing director of Encompass Events. "It was time for us to make forward-looking moves that could aid the growing digital marketing landscape in India."

Gurugram-based skills assessment company Aspiring Minds had acquired Swarup's previous entrepreneurial venture, LetsIntern.com, a web and mobile platform for finding internships. It had a network of 4 million students and more than 22,000 organisations.

Influencer marketing
In influencer marketing, brands pay celebrities or individuals with a large social media following to drive their message through tweets, Facebook posts or videos that incorporate a particular product.

According to a survey by influencer marketing platform Zefmo, nearly 92% marketers will adopt an influencer marketing campaign this year.

Among the platforms that use this tool is content marketing platform WittyFeed, which employs around 15,000 paid influencers to pass on its content to their community of followers. 

Similarly, Bengalurue-based Wooplr Technologies Pvt. Ltd runs a fashion community and e-commerce platform by partnering with brands and social media influencers. 

Soinsi, an influential marketing platform, which was acquired by content marketing startup YAAP Digital Pvt. Ltd in 2016.