Anil Kapoor turns tech investor with Indi.com

California-based social video platform Indi.com has entered the Indian market with Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor as a strategic investor.

Founded in 2012 by US serial entrepreneur Neel Grover, the platform allows users to share their video, similar to YouTube, and engage with other users just like Facebook.

Grover, who sold his e-commerce venture buy.com to Japanese online retailer Rakuten and headed the latter’s North America business, told BusinessLine : “Indi.com is a marriage between Facebook and YouTube. It is a platform that allows artists, celebrities, NGOs, retailers and pretty much everyone to interact and build a brand of their own.”

It also helps movie production houses and studios to conduct casting sessions and select a music talent on the platform. “So I as a director can ask my team to look for fresh casting and talent by putting an application on this platform and anyone from Assam to Kerala can shoot a video of theirs and put it on Indi, thus allowing us to chose the right candidate. We don’t have to go to different States for auditions or they don't have to come to Mumbai and struggle,” said Kapoor, who has invested an undisclosed amount in the venture and is also its brand ambassador.

Kapoor added that Indi is his first tech investment and he is enthusiastic and excited about the growing start-up ecosystem in India.

He will help the company by leveraging his connections in Bollywood and knowhow of the industry and in roping in big brands. The company has tied up with several e-commerce and offline retailers besides some major standalone brands.

It is in talks with PE/VCs to raise funds. It targets to reach out to 600 million users by end of this year.

At this moment, the company’s main revenue model would be partnership fee from the brands, retailers and studios. It, however, plans to monetise it through advertisements.

Revenue model “It’s free for consumers at the moment. We will see if we can charge through a freemium model,” Grover said, adding that there would be various challenges launched for more user engagement.

Initially starting as an online artist consortium, Indi.com has come a long way from its inception. Today, being accessed by people in over 200 countries, it works as an extensive resource for brands to drive more meaningful and deep-rooted social media engagement.

It can initiate challenges which the user will participate in by creating original content and self-promoting the same across multiple social media platforms.

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