Media-tech platform Toch secures funds from IP Ventures

Mumbai-based Vogueme Technologies, which operates a video meta-tagging platform, has raised over $400,000 in a bridge funding round led by early-stage investment platform Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). 

Toch will use the fresh funds to develop technology infrastructure and to scale its team, it said in a statement. The company has declined to reveal the names of other investors, saying that the funding round is still open. 

It last raised funds in July 2019 led by Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels and high net worth individuals. 

“Toch was founded with a vision to revolutionise digital media experience and become a leading media-tech company. It has successfully implemented enabling meta-tagging for live sporting events, live shows, library-based content for streaming platforms and is venturing into broadcasting meta-tagging simultaneously,” Vinayak Shrivastav, CEO of Toch said.

Founded in 2016 by Shrivastav, Saket Dandotia and Alok Patil, Toch provides monetisation tools for over the top (OTT) video players. The tools leverage artificial intelligence and deep learning technology for meta-tagging objects, people, emotions, locations, scenes and activity in real time. It also claims to have filed a patent last year.

The company has so far raised a little over $ 1 million in total funding. 

According to the statement, the OTT market is estimated to touch almost $6 billion by the end of fiscal 2021.

“Toch tries to resolve the decades-old problem of the media industry for inserting metadata in the video, live sports and ad placement in real-time. They are one of the best in the industry as far as latency for object identification, meta-tagging, image tagging, live streaming and e-commerce are considered,” Rakesh Mistry, an IPV investor said.

Founded in 2017, IP Ventures is an investment initiative floated by a group of chief financial officers and finance professionals working at Indian startups. Nine CFOs and finance professionals from startups such as Myntra, BookMyShow and Grofers are part of the programme. 

IP Ventures has invested approximately $3.5 million across eight investments since January 2020. It has mostly backed startups in the healthtech, online grocery delivery, media and entertainment and online education, according to the statement.

OTT platforms have seen an increase in traffic during the nationwide lockdown, which has been enforced to reduce the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. This week, Mumbai headquartered video streaming platform Hotstar, raised Rs 1,113 crore (around $146.5 million) in an equity share issue from its holding companies Star India and Star US Holdings.