Anand Mahindra gives Rs 7.5 crore funding boost to Gurugram-based startup Hapramp

New Delhi: Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has invested USD 1 million (about Rs 7.5 crore) in Gurugram-based Hapramp—a startup that has built a blockchain-based social media platform called GoSocial.

Hapramp was founded in 2018 by five students of Indian Institute of Information Technology-Vadodara.

“Took 2 yrs, but I finally found the start-up I was looking for! @Hapramp is indigenous, built by 5 young founders & brings together a best-in-class combination of creativity, technology & data protection. Look out for @gosocial_app their social networking platform,” Mahindra tweeted on Wednesday.

Hapramp co-founder and CEO Shubhendra Vikram GoSocial has already found 50,000 users in less than three months. It allows users to take up creative challenges designed by photographers, artists, writers, and designers and get rewarded.

In 2018, Mahindra had announced via Twitter a funding opportunity for an Indian social media startup that met certain criteria. He had asked ex-Mahindra executive Jaspreet Bindra to work with him to find a next-gen Indian social network start-up.

“The Hapramp team is building a Web 3.0 social network. It is built on emerging digital technologies, has a solid business model which rewards content creators, protects personal data, and best of all, is built here locally in India,” Bindra said.

He has been signed on as Executive Advisor and Mentor to the Hapramp founding team.

Hapramp has been incubated through its early days by Huddle, an incubator that is based in Gurugram. It has also invested in Hapramp.

In addition to its flagship social networking solution GoSocial, Hapramp also operates 1Ramp.io, a social media platform powered by Steem Blockchain, and Asteria Protocol.

Asteria Protocol will help platforms to privately and securely treat public data.

“We are honoured and excited. This is a massive approval of our mission to give creators the right to their content. We plan to use the funds to expand our platform and want to empower creators,” Vikram told PTI.

He, however, declined to comment on the valuation.

Vikran said the current focus was on building a user base for GoSocial. “Monetisation will happen eventually”. The app is available on Google Play Store and will soon be available on Apple App Store as well.

“We are targeting one lakh users in the next three months and 10 lakh by the end of the year in India. We are looking to take the platform to South East Asian countries around October,” he said.

The startup has 12 employees. The founders are based in Gurugram, while the staff are located across the country.

“We will continue to operate a lean team but we are looking at hiring. By end of the year, we should be at 25-30 people,” Vikram said.