Anand Mahindra invests $1 million in social network start-up Hapramp

The firm is working on the biggest social media challenges: user privacy, data security, and fair content monetization.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group, has come on board as a key investor at start-up Hapramp. The firm is working on the biggest social media challenges such as user privacy, data security, and fair content monetization. It was founded in 2018 by five students in the final year of their computer science graduate degree.

Mahindra is investing $1 million in the Gurugram-based firm. He had, in 2018, announced via Twitter a funding opportunity for an Indian social media start-up that met certain criteria. Hapramp, which had just come into existence, grabbed the opportunity to apply. Mahindra tweeted that Team Hapramp had won the seed funding on Wednesday.

“Took 2 Years but I finally found the start-up I was looking for," Mahindra said in his tweet. He called out Hapramp’s flagship offering GoSocial, saying “Look out for their social networking platform”. GoSocial is a social media platform that rewards artists and creators as they post and engage with the community. About 50 thousand users have already downloaded the GoSocial app from the Google Play Store before it has been formally launched. The app will soon be available on Apple App Store, and the company has plans to expand marketing to South East Asia in the coming year.

Mahindra had asked digital transformation expert and ex-Mahindra executive, Jaspreet Bindra, to work with him to find a next-gen Indian social network start-up. The aim was to find a firm which would reward creators, protect personal data and be built on next-generation technologies like Blockchain. 

“The Hapramp team is building a Web 3.0 social network. It is built on emerging digital technologies, has a solid business model which rewards content creators, protects personal data, and best of all, is built here locally in India,” said Bindra. He has signed on as an executive advisor and mentor to the Hapramp founding team.

Shubhendra Vikram, CEO and one of the co-founders of the start-up said the investment is a massive approval of the company’s mission to give creators the right to their content. 

“The fact that this comes from Mr. Anand Mahindra, someone who we admire and who has always supported creators, gives us confidence,” said Vikram. “We have big plans, and we intend to stick to our belief of empowering creators and building an ecosystem where they can learn, compete, and win rewards.”

Hapramp has been incubated through its early days by Huddle, a leading sector-agnostic incubator, based in Gurugram. Huddle has also invested in Hapramp. 

“Since inception, the Hapramp team has worked with speed, frugality and a larger vision of enhancing lives, through the simplicity of an app that holds a true value of rewards on the go, with a large notion of educating and entertaining their users,” said Sanil Sachar, founding partner, Huddle.

Hapramp sees itself as an idea lab working on the ideas that emerge from the confluence of the creative industry and information economy.

At present, Hapramp is working on three ideas. These include GoSocial, a platform for budding creators to showcase their talent and build a community and 1Ramp.io, a rewarding social media platform powered by Steem Blockchain. It is also working on Asteria Protocol, a new standard for platforms to privately and securely treat public data.