The Public app, a location-based social network, recently announced that it raised additional Rs 300 crore or about $41 million from A91 Partners. As per reports, it raised these funds as part of its latest funding round. This lastest round also saw participation from its existing partners. The company had earlier raised Rs 260 crore or $35 million led by Flipkart-backer Lee Fixel’s Addition, Tanglin Venture Partners, and SIG in September 2020.
The fresh investment will be used for scaling up the content offering, tech infrastructure, and employee base to speed up the growth, improve retention and engagement metrics on the app. Azhar Iqubal, founder and CEO at Public app, said that the company was excited to have A91 Partners on-board on its journey to build the largest location-based social network. Currently, the app has 50 million active users in India. Their aim, according to Iqubal is to first connect the local communities of Bharat and then take the app to a global level. Brands such as Amazon, GSK, HDFC Bank use the Public to reach out to their audiences, the company said. The team at Public is currently building customized ad solutions so brands can engage better with their audience while ensuring that the user experience is intact.
Besides big brands, the app, according to the company, is used by over 50,000 elected officials, citizen journalists, and government authorities to connect with their locality. Many local businesses also use the app to reach their customers in the locality. Gautam Mago, General Partner at A91 Partners, believes that the app continues to maintain best-in-class engagement metrics and retention while scaling. He further said that the team at A91 Partners looks forward to working closely with the team at Public and building an outstanding company.
The multilingual social networking app
The Public is a social networking app based on a hyper-local strategy that helps a user with updates and happenings around his/her location. Public enables hyper-local commerce, classifieds, jobs, and more. The Public was started by Inshorts, short content and news aggregator, in April 2019. The app is currently available in 11 Indian languages – Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, and more.
Since its launch, the Public has been on an exponential growth trajectory. As per recent reports, it is one of the fastest-growing social media apps in India with sky-rocketing users. When India witnessed a boycott of Chinese product sentiment, the Public saw an additional 50 million-plus users. Bhupinder S Hooda, Hema Malini, Youth Congress, and Sadhguru are some of the prominent figures who are on this platform. The app has a mix of users based out of both metros and Tier III cities.
