Fb-parent Meta, which counts India as its largest market by customers, is gearing as much as make its third startup funding within the South Asian market.
The American social media group, which invested in social commerce Meesho in 2019 and on-line studying platform Unacademy in 2020, is in talks to again the early-stage startup Higher Opinions, three sources acquainted with the matter informed TechCrunch.
The deliberations are ongoing and the deal is but to shut, sources cautioned, requesting anonymity as the main points are personal. Meta didn’t reply to a request for remark Tuesday night.
Meta is proposing to put money into Higher Opinions’ seed financing spherical of as much as $3 million, valuing the startup at underneath $25 million, two sources mentioned. If the talks materialize right into a deal, it will likely be the primary time Meta takes stake in a seed-stage Indian startup.
Samay Jain, co-founder of Higher Opinions, informed TechCrunch in an emailed response that the startup has raised $2.5 million seed funding from Metaplanet VC, YCombinator, Taurus VC, Authentic Capital, Tremis Capital, Goodwater Capital and Tremendous Capital amongst others. He declined to touch upon the startup’s deliberations with Meta.
Based final 12 months by GoJek alums Jain and Soumyajit Das, Higher Opinions is constructing what it has described to buyers as “the prediction market” for India. The eponymous app permits people to commerce their opinions on on a regular basis subjects and win actual money based mostly on how good these predictions turned out.
These on a regular basis subjects embrace predicting the value of a cryptocurrency token at a selected future time, field workplace assortment of a brand new title and views a YouTube will have the ability to garner throughout a selected interval.
On the app, customers can even make predictions on outcomes of cricket matches in addition to particular outcomes of sure occasions within the sport corresponding to runs in an over, in accordance with an evaluation of the app.
“You possibly can set your value, hedge and commerce utilizing Higher Opinions. With our insights and your abilities, you may commerce and revenue. We wish to make buying and selling an thrilling train,” the startup says on its web site.
In response to figures obtained from an investor deck, Jain mentioned the startup has amassed 600,000 customers who’ve traded over $1.25 million on the platform. The startup plans to make income by charging brokerage payment, promote subscription, and maket making, it disclosed within the investor deck.
Higher Opinions is trying to open the world of investments to individuals who have understanding of particular topics however are unable to utilize it within the inventory markets, one in all its buyers described in a memo.
The prediction market is starting to make inroads in a number of markets. Startups corresponding to Kalshi and Dream11 additionally function within the area and have amassed hundreds of thousands of customers.
Meta’s friends Google and Amazon have additionally made a number of investments in India in recent times, chasing alternatives that usually praise and broaden their approaches to serve the world’s second largest web market.
