Bengaluru-based CSR-tech platform Goodera has raised $10 million from a clutch of investors, including Zoom Ventures, Elevation Capital, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s Xto10X, Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network.
Bansal has also invested in the startup in his personal capacity.
This is the first investment in India for Zoom Ventures, the investment arm of US-based video-conferencing platform Zoom.
Founded in 2014, Goodera initially built a platform for Indian corporates to manage corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments and assess their social impact.
After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, it turned into an employee volunteering platform. “In a transaction that happened parallel to Goodera’s fundraise, they sold the India CSR platform business to (non-profit organisation) Give. The move will allow Goodera to focus on the explosive global growth of their volunteering platform,” the company said.
The company expects to more than double its revenue in 2022.
It did not, however, disclose the details of its financials.
Goodera was one of the nominees in the Social Enterprise category of the Economic Times Startup Awards 2021.
Founded and led by IIM-Bangalore alumnus Abhishek Humbad, Goodera provides its customers, who are mostly employers based in the US, a catalogue of volunteering opportunities for their employees.
“Goodera’s technology simplifies volunteering and eliminates overheads, thereby offering millions of employees the opportunity to volunteer…This fundraise will help us scale our infrastructure to further our vision of making volunteering more accessible and impactful,” said Humbad, who serves as its CEO.
The company plans to invest the capital to build its team, technology and catalogue, as it aims to serve over 100 million employees by 2025.
“Goodera’s story is inspiring for India’s startup ambitions — from a dramatic turnaround during the pandemic to a stellar US go-to-market that won them Fortune 500 customers. They are building a truly global business from the ground up in a market that was due for disruption,” said Bansal.
The company counts large corporations such as IBM, Target, EY and Amazon among its customers, and has provided volunteering opportunities to more than 10 million employees through its customers.
“Goodera’s growth in the last two years is the reward that the market gives you to build novel solutions from 0 to 1,” said Elevation Capital’s Ravi Adusumalli. “Abhishek and the team at Goodera have unmatched expertise in the domain and are building a whole new category with their employee volunteering solutions, and we are excited to continue supporting them with scale.”
Article Credits: The Economic Times