The company had halted the salary payments for its employees from April due to a cash crunch, triggered by failure in partnership talks. The company was reportedly in talks with Dailyhunt for an acquisition.Founded in 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo was India’s first microblogging site available in over 10 languages. The platform gained prominence when the then-IT minister of India, Ravi Shankar Prasad, engaged in a dispute with Twitter (now known as X). It garnered significant promotion from celebrities and ministers. Koo featured a yellow bird logo, amassing nearly 60 million downloads since its inception.“Koo has been built with a lot of heart. 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. In a world where 80% of the population speaks a language other than English, this is a strong need. We wanted to democratise expression and enable a better way to connect people in their local languages,” the co-founders explained.Most global products are dominated by Americans. We believe that India should have a place at the table,” they added.Reports indicate that in February 2021, Koo raised $4.1 million in its Series A round and secured an additional $31 million three months later, led by American investment firm Tiger Global. By June 2022, Koo had raised over $57 million, reaching a peak valuation of $285.5 million. By July 2022, the app had over 9 million monthly active users.
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