Ketto Online Ventures Private Limited is a Mumbai based online crowd-funding platform which received an angel investment of INR 77 lakhs. CLUB ah!, which is India’s largest & fastest growing investor network, together with Calcutta Angels, a Calcutta based not for profit angel network, closed this angel deal. This deal was the first impact investment made by CLUB ah! investors through “ah! Impact” network, the impact investment arm of the parent company ah! Ventures.
Ketto is a crowd funding platform for creative and social causes. Ketto aims to mobilize the youth through social media to multiply the efforts of the entrepreneurial community, by making online giving easy and safe. With its strong celebrity support, Ketto aims to connect individuals and brands with fundraisers thereby enabling entrepreneurs to raise funding and increase their awareness. Ketto Online’s ketto.org helps non-profits to raise funds for supported and listed causes by connecting them to companies and individuals alike. Ketto was the brainchild of Varun Sheth, Kunal Kapoor and Zaheer Adenwala and was started in October 2012. Varun is a certified Financial Risk Manager and an alumnus of Narsee Monji college. Kunal, is a versatile actor who is seen in movies like Rang De Basanti and is also a celebrity ambassador for Save The Children, Ogaan Cancer Foundation and Akshara Centre. Zaheer is an alumnus of Drexel University, Philadelphia and has a B.S. Mechanical Engineering degree and has formerly been a project manager at DirectI.
Crowd-funding for supporting social causes is a relatively new concept in India. Ketto’s value proposition is to increase engagement and participation among NGOs, supporters and Corporates to raise funds while bringing down the cost of doing the same. For individuals who support the causes, they receive an instant 80G receipt and for the first time, provide cash through their cash pick up service. Ketto’s vision is to become a supermarket for crowdfunding helping raise funds for social causes, startup companies, creative projects, microfinance institutions and individuals. Ketto is already gaining traction with over 15,000 unique investors per month and will be using the money invested to launch their new module and after that to market the platform to increase the number of partners as well as patrons, who are the corporates and individuals. They want to use this money for product development, marketing and business development.
Varun, one of the co-founders said, “CLUB ah! is a very helpful network for any entrepreneur who is looking to raise external equity funding. The club management plays a very hands on role to guide you through the process of fundraising and deal closing. They vetted us and then introduced us to a large network of investors, helped close the deal and connected us with lawyers & accountants and guided us in every step of the way.”
Ketto was the first angel investment deal by CLUB ah! in a social enterprise and was driven through ah! Impact, the impact investment arm of ah! Ventures. ah! Impact is an undertaking by ah! Ventures to revolutionize the way we look at social enterprises and impact investments. ah! Impact has created an innovative method of creating an ‘Impact Plan’ which will be an extension of the regular business plan and will help investors to gauge the impact creating potential of the company. Harshad, the co-founder of ah! Ventures said, “ah! Impact was created to support the growing number of social enterprises. Also the large number of our investors, which are mostly first time investors have shown great interest in investing in social enterprises with high potential and measurable social or environmental impact.”
With a numerous associations and tie ups already, ah! Impact aims to drive change by guiding and mentoring the social enterprises and through that develop the nascent social start-up ecosystem in India.
We wish them luck in their endeavour.