Crowdfunding platform Crowdera secures pre-Series A funding

Crowdera, which runs an online crowdfunding platform, has raised an undisclosed amount from angel investors as part of a pre-Series A funding round.

The company said in a statement that Silicon Valley startup attorney Anil Advani and Singapore-based angel investors Pramod Jain, Amrendra Reddy and Manish Satnaliwala had participated in the round.

Crowdera plans to use the money to boost growth and enhance its product.

The cloud-based fundraising platform provides a framework for non-profits and social innovators to raise funds. It also offers paid value-added services for marketing and advertising.

Parent entity Crowdera Inc was founded in 2014 in San Francisco by Chet Jain, Chaitanya Atreya and Rich Matsuura. Jain is the company’s chief executive officer.

Crowdera has supported more than 2,300 campaigns funded by 5,500 donors from 35 countries. The platform is currently operational in 200 countries by virtue of its payment gateway partnerships.

Other crowdfunding platforms in India include BitGiving, IgniteIntent, Milaap, ImpactGuru, Ketto and FundMyPitch.

Last month, social-impact crowdfunding platform ImpactGuru, incubated at Harvard in 2014, said it had raised $2 million (Rs 13 crore) in a Series A round led by Apollo Hospitals Group and Venture Catalysts, a seed fund and incubator.

Ketto, which is co-founded by actor Kunal Kapoor, had raised Rs 4.4 crore in 2016 in an angel investment round led by existing investor Pradyumna Dalmia, co-founder of Calcutta Angels; and Sudhir Rao of The Chennai Angels, who is also co-founder of IndusAge Partners.

Also in 2016, BitGiving raised an undisclosed amount from Wazir Advisors’ founder Harminder Sahni, Capillary Technologies’ co-founder Krishna Mehra, Impulse Marketing’ co-founder Sanjay Bakshi, and others.