Homegrown social media platform Koo is shutting down its operations, as revealed by the co-founders via an emotional post on LinkedIn. Koo, which was founded in 2020, was once touted as the Indian rival of Twitter.
In a surprising turn of events, Co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka revealed that they were just months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022. However, they could not fulfil this dream as they explored partnerships which could not yield great results.
The shocking announcement came on Wednesday, July 3 with a heartfelt note.
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“We were just months away from beating Twitter”
The official note shared by co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka stated, “We explored partnerships with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates, and media houses but these talks didn’t yield the outcome we wanted.”
The note continued, “We were just months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and could have doubled down on that short term goal with capital behind us.” They added, “Unfortunately for us, the mood of the market and the funding winter got better of us.”
The note concluded by referring to its logo, stating, “the little yellow bird says its final goodbye.” During its peak phase, the company experienced a decrease in finance, which considerably impeded its growth trajectory.
Koo was backed by Accel and Tiger Global. At its height, Koo had 10 million monthly active users, 2.1 million daily active users, and a sizable roster of over 9,000 VIPs, including well-known figures from a variety of areas. However, in the midst of its aggressive expansion plans, Koo had a setback.
Amidst governmental tensions with Twitter (now X) and an increasing desire for expanding India’s own internet platforms, Koo has achieved significant popularity in 2021. Union ministers’ and government departments’ endorsements of it at that time period underscored its influence.
After raising approximately $66 million from backers, including 3one4 Capital, Koo’s market value was recently estimated to be $274 million. Radhakrishna started the ride-hailing business TaxiForSure before launching Koo, which Ola purchased in 2015. Bidawatka was Radhakrishna’s coworker at TaxiForSure and cofounder of Koo.
Since last year, Koo has had trouble raising fresh funding, which has led the business to look into platform mergers. None of these conversations, though, ended in success.
