Bengaluru-Based Goodera Raises $10 Million Funding

Bengaluru-based employee volunteering platform Goodera raised $10 million in funding from a bunch of investors including Zoom Ventures, Elevation Capital, Xto10X Technologies, Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India. US-based businesswoman Ursula Burns and co-founder of Flipkart, Binny Bansal, also participated in the investment round. 

“Volunteering has become mainstream across companies of sizes, sectors, and geographies. It is the most meaningful employee engagement, especially for Gen Z and millennials. Goodera solves a massive need that was underserved and overlooked. They have seen exponential growth with F500 clients, great NPS, and strong unit economics. We are proud to be a customer and now an investor in their ambition of bringing volunteering to every workplace,” added Sanjay Rao, head of corporate development-M&A strategy at Zoom Ventures.

With this investment, Zoom Ventures, the investment arm of the US-based video conference platform Zoom, marks its entry into the Indian market. 

“Goodera has reimagined volunteering to meet the needs of the evolving workforce. Their inspiring growth makes me hopeful about a future where employers embrace action on important causes like diversity, equity, and climate change. I am excited to support Goodera in this mission of engaging millions of employees in volunteering,” said Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox, who is also a mentor to Goodera.

Founded by Abhishek Humbad in 2014, Goodera provided corporate social responsibility (CSR) services to Indian corporates before the pandemic. However, the company shifted its business to volunteer experiences that include reviewing resumes of underprivileged youth, tree plantation and cleaning beaches and parks.

It currently offers services in a virtual, hybrid and in-person modes and operates in more than 20 languages. It has a presence in over 100 countries. It plans to use the recently raised capital to scale its team and technology infrastructure. 

Goodera sold its earlier business platform to non-profit organisation Give to grasp more control over overseas markets. 

Talking about the business model, Humbad said, “Every team in the world wants to volunteer. But there is insane amount of friction in the process. From finding the right nonprofit to finalizing the volunteering activity, logistics and impact measurement, there are a lot of overheads.” Goodera tries to simplify this process by offering corporates a platform where they can channel their CSR budget.  

Addressing their decision to put money into Goodera, Ravi Adusumali from Elevation Capital said, "Goodera’s growth in the last two years is the reward that the market gives you to build novel solutions from 0 to 1.”