– Bluegape is the world’s first visual blogging platform
– Bluegape has raised a total of USD 1.1 million from investors to date
Mumbai 20th August 2015,
Gurgaon based Visual Blogging Platform bluegape raised USD 600,000 from ah! Ventures, Rudy Gopalakrishnan of Fidelity and Times Internet. Barclays Capital India has been advising bluegape & helping in getting connected with right investors. The deal has been closed on ah! ventures’ equity investment platform, CLUBah.com. Bluegape had earlier raised USD 184,000 in April 2015 from Rudy Gopalakrishnan and ah! Ventures. Bluegape is backed by TLabs and has received a total funding of USD 500,000 (excluding the recent round) till date.
Long form of content is dying in this mobile era where users have a very short attention span. Bluegape is giving users a platform to create and consume content in a visual format. Currently bluegape has over 15 Million+ unique visitors every month and around 100,000+ posts are getting created on the platform every month.
Our vision is to make communication of ideas and knowledge very easy. On Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat we are connected to our close group of friends and they are like your private social identity. bluegape, on the other hand will be your public social identity which is about self-expression with the world. bluegape will be “A Social Profile You Can Be Proud Of”, said Sahil Baghla, Co-Founder & CEO, Bluegape.
The startup was founded in August 2011 by Sahil Baghla and Ayush Varshney (Company has pivoted from Merchandise Business to Visual Blogging Platform in January 2015). Both the founders are IIT-Kanpur alumni.
Ayush Varshney, Co-Founder & CTO, Bluegape added, “We will use the money on technology and for expanding our engineering team. The existing investors have lead the round which is a very good sign that we are on the right track.”
People are doing amazing stuff at bluegape like their niche fashion blog (www.bluegape.com/beyondthecliche), on feminism (www.bluegape.com/ihatebras), on celebrity fanclubs (www.bluegape.com/alia-bhatt-fan-club), or Individual bloggers (www.bluegape.com/grace-cyril).
Tanmoy Roy, one of the investors from ah! Ventures said, “There has always been a tussle between content providers and content platforms. Even though the Buzzfeeds, Upworthys have made their mark, they have been no match for platforms like Facebooks, Twitters of the world. In Bluegape, I loved the concept of open/close “listicles” and the restriction of just one format (much like the 140 character Twitter or square photos of Instagram).”
Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founder of ah! Ventures said, “ In today’s inter-connected, plugged-in world, nothing is more fast-paced than technology. It constantly evolves to meet our ever-increasing need to stay connected. Technology has enabled the world to shrink into a global village where everybody is connected to one another through one platform or the other. Bluegape is a social media disruptor, it’s the black swan. Sahil and Ayush have created the future of social media. Within a short span, Bluegape has seen traction of over 15 unique million visitors each month and growing, which is the proof of the platform and reflects the dedication of the team in delivering a world class product out of India. CLUB ah! is proud to be associated with Blugape in its quest to success.”
CLUB ah!, an angel network of over 450 investors, including some of the renowned angels and early stage VCs represent the maturity of Indian early stage investment ecosystem. Started in 2012, the CLUB ah! platform boasts of over 2000+ startups, 450+ seed/angel investors and over 60 VCs and intuitional investors. It also has an impact investment network and a mentor network to assist startups in their growth and expansion. Till date CLUB ah! has invested close to USD 6 mn across 15 startups including Bluegape.
Talking about the transaction, Harshad Lahoti, Founder & CEO, ah! Ventures, said, “Some may wonder whether the valuations for some of these new tech companies are exaggerated, but, exaggerated or not, they are reinventing some of the most basic structures of human interaction and for those looking for the next Facebook or LinkedIn, Bluegape is the answer. Social media platforms have a cyclic process, you have to be constantly innovating to stay relevant to the audience. Bluegape by all virtue is very innovative in its approach and will soon become the new normal. Visual blogging is a new concept and by the traction that we see on the portal, we believe this will be the next big social interactive platform. The bluegape team has a clear vision to disrupt the existing social interaction landscape. For an investor, the pedigree of the team and idea are critical. In bluegape, investors can find disruptive growth and a team committed to deliver.”
ah! Ventures is in the final stages of closing 2 more deals in the coming weeks.