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Ekank Technologies Raises $1 Million in Seed Funding from 9Unicorns & Venture Catalysts, Titan Capital, Bharat Founders Fund Syndicate, and Investors
The new-age storytelling platform aims to make history, art, culture, and heritage accessible to the masses by empowering regional storytellers
Mumbai, 30th January, 2022: Ekank Technologies, a vernacular storytelling platform, has raised $1 million from 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Titan Capital, Bharat Founders Fund Syndicate, Sujeet Kumar (Cofounder of Udaan) with participation from Archana Priyadarshini, Amit Jain, Amit Hooja, and Deepak Jain (Partner at Bain). The Seed Funding would be utilised towards supporting and strengthening the technological capability, and inviting more storytellers on the platform across different media formats (text, audio, illustrations, and comics), thereby expanding the company’s footprint in digital media. The organization also plans to expand its team across all departments, particularly, product and technology.
The idea is to revamp the way users discover and interact with historical content in an engaging way. Utilizing a combination of design, gamification, and storyteller incentivisation, the company wants to bring a seemingly endless amount of stories to the users without them losing interest.
Commenting on the fundraising, Summit Nayak, Co-founder, Ekank Technologies said, “Ekank Technologies wants to be synonymous with culture-led startups in India. We want to transform the way stories are told by providing the creators with an opportunity to share their human-interest stories across history, art, culture, and heritage, with a large audience base. The funding will help us bring history and culture to the forefront through our platform. We are thankful to our partners for backing our vision.”
“There is a famous adage in India – Every two miles the water changes, and every four miles the dialect. India is a land of pluralities and despite this rich diversity in the country’s culture, there is a startling gap in the Indian startup landscape pertaining to our rich heritage, which is on the verge of being lost and forgotten. Everything that we see and come across in our daily lives has a historical and cultural aspect associated with it. Through our platform, ThisDay, we are democratising the way readers perceive non-fictional storytelling,” Chetan Rexwal, Co-founder, Ekank Technologies added.
Addressing his vision for backing Ekank Technologies, Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, co-founder of 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts said, “History is often seen as a boring subject amongst many students as they can’t connect with the subject matter. But the way Ekank makes storytelling compelling and interesting with the help of technology is par excellence. The use of vernacular language makes it quite appealing and popular amongst the masses. The growth of vernacular content is all set to explode and we see a massive opportunity for Ekank to be a leading player in the vernacular content segment that is still quite untapped.”
Excited to back the startup, Bipin Shah, Titan Capital, commented, “Our investment in Ekank is in alignment with our investment philosophy of backing companies with large vision with a solid team and plan. We have immense faith in the Ekank’s capabilities and potential to connect the new-age audience with history, art, culture, and heritage, globally. We look forward to helping Ekank in strengthening the organization, as they continue to serve millions of enthusiasts and storytellers through the rapidly accelerating power of digitization. We envisage that the company is poised for significant growth in both near and long-term.”
Excited about the investment in Ekank, Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl, COO, BharatPe and an investor via the Bharat Founders Fund syndicate, commented, “While most startups in India, today, are focussed on the present and the future, there is a glaring gap in terms of recognizing the importance of history and culture, which makes ThisDay a novel concept. Given the criticality and intricacy of history and culture in India, I am excited to invest in a venture that is beginning to bring to light our rich heritage and expansive knowledge. I truly believe this platform will contribute meaningfully to society and people.”
The pioneering startup is reimagining storytelling through its platform, ThisDay, which encourages micro-influencers and creators to share their nuggets on culture and heritage. By empowering them to monetize their stories, the brand is giving an impetus to the creator economy in India. With a vision of outreaching a global audience through local tales, Ekank Technologies will add audio stories and enable visual storytelling on the platform in the near term.