Ping, a Bengaluru-based conversational commerce platform, has reportedly secured USD 3.5 million during a seed funding round which was led by Elevation Capital. The company intends to use the fresh funds for strategic hiring, product development, and expanding its reach across India.

For those unaware, Ping was founded in 2020 by Vartika Bansal and essentially allows commerce as well as communication among local manufactures, agricultural producers, and home-based business owners. The company currently has around 400 residential communities and intends to add at least 3,000 more.

The founder Bansal was reported saying that India’s maker economy is proliferating, with rising e-commerce penetration and focus among makers towards providing and preserving their identities. She added that the company aims to augment this trend through an advanced conversational community platform that will allow farmers and producers to directly connect with local communities.

One of the partners at Elevation Capital Mukul Arora mentioned that there has been a substantial emergence of makers of distinctive products across various categories including food & beverage, fruits & vegetables, and beauty products among others. Urban consumers are also inclined towards using such unique products over mass-produced counterparts, he added.

Bansal is known for her experience in launching as well as leading business verticals such as Oyo Hotels & Homes as well as Uber Eats. Ping, meanwhile, is a remote-first organization and has teams located across India, with operations in Hyderabad, Gurugram, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

India’s startup ecosystem is expected to register substantial growth following the unprecedented funding boom that has managed to create over 20 unicorns this year alone. According to seasoned analysts, the startup domain is likely to showcase three-fold growth in valuation by 2025.

Currently, the country has around 59 unicorns and about 55,000 startups, with numbers reaching 150 and 100,000 respectively by 2025. India is also anticipated to attract a whopping USD 100 billion just between 2021 and 2025, becoming the second-largest startup ecosystem behind the United States, experts claimed.

Source Credits –

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/ping-gets-3-5-million-in-seed-funding-from-elevation-capital/articleshow/85231532.cms