Vokal raises $5 million in Series A round

Vokal, a vernacular knowledge sharing platform, has raised $5 million in Series A round led by Shunwei Capital, and 500 new start-ups. It also saw the participation from existing investors Accel India and Blume Ventures too.

Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder & CEO, Vokal, said, “Anyone who doesn’t know English in India has a huge problem of accessing relevant answers to their questions. Their Internet experience is poor with a dearth of meaningful content. We’re building a peer-to-peer content network that can cater to their information & knowledge needs. Shunwei Capital understands the power of such a vernacular platform and we’re happy to have them as partners in our journey.”

Tuck Lye Koh, Partner & CEO, Shunwei Capital, said, “India is a large market and the language Internet users are underserved today. We are bullish on Vokal’s ability to create an information and knowledge platform to cater to this segment of users. They are proven entrepreneurs and have built large Internet businesses before. We are happy to be partnering them in this mission.”

Anand Daniel, Partner, Accel Partners, said, “Language diversity is an Indian problem and Vokal is building India-specific solutions to cater to the information & knowledge needs for the non-english users. We are happy to support Vokal’s mission of creating a destination for the vernacular audience. The market is expected to balloon to 550+ million users over the next couple of years.”

Mayank Bidawatka, Co-founder, Vokal said, “India is one of the few countries with such a large language diversity. The Indian vernacular segment is poised to be almost twice the size of the United States. Their Internet experience is broken with basic translation widgets available as solutions for their information & knowledge needs. We are creating a product ground-up that they can use everyday. This is an Indian problem that needs an Indian solution. Translation of existing content is a non-solution for a country that thrives on audio-visual media as their preferred consumption mode.”