Koo: Indian firms to take over Chinese investments

Homegrown microblogging platform Koo on Thursday said Chinese VC Shunwei will be fully exiting the venture, and added that Indian entrepreneurs Ashish Hemrajani of BookMyShow, Vivekananda of Bounce, and Nithin Kamat of Zerodha, among others, will be investing in it.

“It is a clear indication the company is getting more Indian money,” Koo said in a statement as it tried to address criticism over the Chinese ownership. The recent investment of $4.1 million into its parent firm, Bombinate Technologies, was led by 3one4 Capital, an Indian investor. “Shunwei had not participated in the latest round of funding. It had invested in the company for the earlier product, Vokal, which answers user questions in Indian languages and will be exiting fully with the new investors buying their stake,” Koo said.

Existing investors, including 3one4 Capital, Kalaari and others, will also be buying out some of the stake.

Koo reiterated it is a fully Atmanirbhar app with Indian founders and India registration.

Meanwhile, there were allegations of personal data of users being leaked. A French hacker who goes by the name of Elliot Alderson on Twitter said the app is leaking personal data of its users like email, date of birth, name, marital status and gender. Koo could not be contacted till the time of going to the press.