Social media start-up Koo is going to shut down its services. The platform, which was keen on an alternative to X, formerly Twitter, is closing its operations after talks about acquisition failed.
Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, the founders of Koo, mentioned in a Linkedin post, “We explored partnerships with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates, and media houses, but these talks didn’t yield the outcome we wanted.” In February this year, there were reports that DailyHunt was in advanced talks to acquire the social network start-up, as per the Tech Crunch. The deal reportedly involved a share-swap agreement.
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Koo has raised more than $60 million from investors including Tiger Global, Accel, 3One4 Capital, Mirae Asset, and Blume. While mentioning the failure of the acquisition talks, the co-founders highlighted, “A couple of them changed priorities almost close to signing. While we would've liked to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high, and we've had to take this tough decision.”
The founders wrote that even though they would like to keep the social media app running, the cost of the technology services required to keep a social media app running is high. Hence, the tough decision was taken, the founders added.
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Built in early 2020, Koo was formed with the emphasis that it is available in more than ten languages. “We saw a big gap between the languages the world speaks and the fact that most social products, especially X/Twitter in India, are English dominant,” the founders said in the post.
The aim of the app was to democratise expression and enable people to connect via local languages. The microblogging platform had around 2.1 million daily active users during its peak time. However, the funding winter took the better of the company, as the founders mentioned in the post.
Bidawatka had written in a post two months ago, "I spoke about us looking for strategic partners that can help Koo with the needed distribution, amidst a funding winter. Those talks are still ongoing but are delayed."
He also mentioned that the company had resorted to salary cuts. The co-founder wrote that they would be able to give back salaries to its employees only after the partnership was finalised. Due to its financial crunch, the firm also laid off several of its employees over a period of time.
