Hunch Secures $23 Million In Funding Led By Alpha Wave, Hashed

Social network app Hunch on Wednesday said it has raised $23 million (about Rs 190 crore) in a funding round led by Alpha Wave and Hashed Emergent.

The company plans to use the new investment to launch the app across the US and further expand in India. "I'm thrilled to have new funding, especially at a time when Hunch is scaling across the US and India. We are extremely grateful for all the support received from our diverse and experienced investors, especially through the last year.

"This investment underscores our commitment to making Hunch the go-to destination for authentic, meaningful connections for young adults," Hunch co-founder and CEO Ish Goel said. Users on Hunch can create polls that attract votes and comments on a broad spectrum of topics, like pop culture, gaming, finance, dating, relationships, anime etc.

The polls bridge a curiosity gap, allowing users to validate their own opinions and find like-minded individuals, a statement said. To date, Hunch claims to have recorded over 1.15 lakh polls, garnering over 1 crore opinions through user votes nationwide.

"Crowd-sourced intelligence is a big area of innovation both in the web3 and web2 worlds, and many attempts have been made to build a platform that brings out structured crowd intelligence. We feel Hunch can build on the best of both worlds and emerge as the preferred platform for opinionated individuals.

"Consumer social expects a rejig every few years, and Hunch is poised to drive that change. With fatigue growing amongst Gen Z around apps that promote vicarious living, there is a big opportunity to build something that promotes being real without the filters," Hashed Emergent CEO and managing partner Tak Lee said.