India-grown 'Koo' to get rid of Chinese connection, app co-founder confirms

The made-in-India Koo app is set to get rid of its Chinese investor as social media users have started raising questions over the app's Beijing connection.

The app has, in a matter of few days, gained considerable traction as ministers are moving on to the desi microblogging platform.

Also read | Indian Twitter-like micro-blogging platform Koo witnesses surge in popularity

Koo was founded in March 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. It was one of the winners of Aatmanirbhar App challenge 2020.

Koo co-founder Aprameya, to this end, tweeted to confirm that Chinese investor Shunwei Capital, a small stakeholder of the company at present, will soon leave the app, and that its respective stakes are being bought by other companies.

"Koo is an India registered company with Indian founders. Raised earlier capital 2.5 years ago. Latest funds for Bombinate Technologies is led by a truly Indian investor 3one4 capital. Shunwei (single digit shareholder) which had invested in our Vokal journey will be exiting fully," he posted on Twitter.

The increased promotion of Koo came about as India and San Francisco-headquartered Twitter engaged in a face-off over the latter's "inaction" to take action against account "inciting genocide". Koo got a shot in the arm as some government departments, including the ministry of electronics and information technology, opened their accounts on it, and remained active ever since.

To this end, a Chinese investor on board stood to harm the image of the homegrown app. To fight it, however, Koo managed to raise about ₹30 crore fund from investors.

The new app saw a huge load in the past few days in what is being called as 'Koo coup'. "We have got more love than we expected. Our systems are facing more load than ever. Thank you for placing your trust in us. Our team is working on overdrive to fix it. We request your patience and support through this time," Aprameya tweeted.