Billion Hearts Software: Koo founder Mayank Bidawatka’s company raises $250,000 in angel funding round, backed by 13 angel investors

The project will have the support of 13 angel investors which includes co-founders of companies like redBus, Ola, InMobi, Myntra and former CTO of Flipkart among others.

Bidawatka told ET that Billion Hearts is developing a consumer application in a stealthy manner and that the statement of the problem it is trying to solve has a multi-billion dollar market opportunity worldwide.

“We will launch the beta version of the product between December this year and January next year initially for a few selected users,” he said.

“In India itself, this is a billion-dollar revenue opportunity,” he added.

Without revealing details of the product in development, he said: “We have just closed a deal with an angel investor.” investment round of $250,000. We will create consumer digital products for global users. This is still a secret matter. The market size for the first product we will launch is basically the smartphone users in the world. It is a very broad use case and requires a lot of technology.”

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The company’s investors include a mix of three venture capitalists, entrepreneurs who have built consumer technology companies in India and grown globally, and corporate executives. Puneet Chawla, founder of Jaypore, told ET, “I was part of the first round. It’s a population-scale product with a unique proposition. Anyone with a smartphone will find use for this consumer app and I don’t think this has been attempted before. It’s an exciting problem statement and the beta version will be available soon.”

For now, all ten employees of Billion Hearts will work remotely and the company will look for a coworking space in Indiranagar, Bengaluru.

The company has a team of 10 people, which it plans to expand to 15, with experience in backend, Android, iOS and machine learning.

Ankit Bhati, Co-Founder of Ola, said, “Bidawatka has identified a unique idea that can turn this product into a highly sought-after product in a very short period of time. Ideas like these can be extremely disruptive and I look forward to seeing his vision come to fruition.”

Darshit Vora, Partner at Acherman Capital, told ET, “It is a product for Gen Z smartphone users. It has been in development for two months.”

Phanindra Sama, founder of redBus, told ET that he had worked with Bidawatka on redBus. “The product is innovative and one of its kind. It is unparalleled and there is no product like this in the market today,” he said.

Narasimha Reddy, CFO of MoEngage, told ET that the kind of product Billion Hearts is trying to develop allowed it to close the deal in less than a week. “It is a global use case that is not specifically limited to any particular market, and is frequently encountered by smartphone users across the world,” he said.

Asked about the learnings from Koo’s experience that he would like to take into his new venture, Bidawatka said, “The biggest learning from Koo is to start monetizing as early as possible. It helps the startup become self-sustaining and independent of the need for funds.”

Investors in the company include Phanindra Sama, Founder of redBus; Ankit Bhati, Co-Founder of Ola; Piyush Shah, Founder of InMobi; Raveen, Founder of Myntra; Narasimha Reddy, CFO of MoEngage; Mekin Maheshwari, Former CTO of Flipkart; Puneet Chawla, Founder of Jaypore; Rekuram Varadharaj, Co-Founder of healthi; Nithin Chandra, Chief Product Officer of Facebook; Bhaskar Raju, Head of Engineering at Rattle; Nizamabad Angels; Darshit Vora, Partner at Acherman Capital; and Vibhore Sharma, Partner at 2B Capital.