Startup Plop Raises An Undisclosed Amount Of Funding Amid The Pandemic

Startups across the globe are grappling with the global crisis of Covid-19. However, companies with tech as its focus and key USP are making the most of its time. One such startup is the Mumbai based Interactive mobile fiction platform – Plop. The startup today announced that it has raised an undisclosed round of funding led by Better Capital, Hari Balasubramanian’s EaSyndicate on LetsVenture, and notable angels Rohit Chanana (ex-President HeroCorp), Jayant Kadambi (serial entrepreneur and Silicon valley investor) and Sunilkumar Singhvi (MD South Handlooms). A number of noted executives from the OTT and gaming domains have also participated via the syndicates. The startup was previously incubated at IIM Bangalore and is also a part of the Goldman Sachs Startup Program.

In the world of podcasts, TikTok and Insta Stories, Plop is the next level of interactive, immersive storytelling. Plop breaks across multiple mediums – text, video, audio, simulations and role-playing to bring the next level of interactive content experience, at the cusp of content and gaming. The bite-sized stories are a new form in the interactive fiction market, which is mostly crowded with role-playing games that don’t fully cater to the mobile-only market.

A brain child of Chartered Accountant & IIMB alum – Anushka and a software Engineer & ISB alum – Vineet, Plop is a global product with over 50% of their users coming from North America, and rest from Europe and Asia (including India). Much like what OTT platforms and gaming players have seen during the COVID-19 lockdown, Plop has experienced an over 400% rise in its user activity especially from the United States and United Kingdom,. Plop has seen a 800% increase in its in-app purchases. Similarly, there has been an aggressive growth in the number of writers/creators who have been onboarded to the platform.

A delightful new use case that has arisen during this lockdown is that Plop with its many interactive, immersive elements is becoming a easy-to-use, fun platform for Europeans especially from Germany, Netherlands and France to learn conversational English.

“We believe we are re-introducing storytelling to the youth. We aim to be the first global platform for immersive story-telling on which writers and even traditional publishing houses around the world could create and monetize their interactive fiction.” says co-founder of Plop, Anushka Shetty.

The funding will mainly be utilised to broaden the content catalogue by on-boarding world class creators.

 “We believe short form interactive content format is the future and Plop is enabling just that. Plop’s interactive story writing platform is enabling writers to create highly engaging content that users are not only consuming but also paying for. Plop has the potential to be the next big platform for content & I am excited to watch the vision unfold”, said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, a seed fund with early bets in category defining businesses like Open, Khatabook, Bijak, Yulu & others. Better Capital was the earliest believer in Plop and the founders’ vision for an interactive content format.

Plop stories unfold in the form of conversations on a chat-like interface and are interlaced with multimedia elements like pictures, GIFs, voice notes. The chat-like interface is so easy to use that it takes away the friction usually associated with reading on a digital medium.

Plop is currently working with over a hundred creators across the globe who create their own Plop interactive stories. These creators are growing and working towards making their own brand on Plop and acquiring their own fan base, which allows them to make as much as a couple of hundred dollars every month. In light of COVID-19, Plop has waived off their commissions from creators (largely gig workers) for a 5 week period starting from 24th March to 30th April, to make sure that the community can make the most in these tough times.