Shunwei Capital exits from Bombinate Technologies, the parent firm of Koo

Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Vokal and Koo, on Wednesday said that existing investors along with a bunch of individuals have bought out Shunwei Capital’s minority stake in the firm.

Individuals who participated in the buyout are former Indian cricketer Javagal Srinath, BookMyShow founder Ashish Hemrajani, Udaan co-founder Sujeet Kumar, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamat.

The firm in its release pointed out that Shunwei Capital had held a bit more than a 9% stake.

“As earlier stated, we had been in discussion with Shunwei Capital to enable a smooth exit after it invested in our company 2.5 years ago while we were raising funds for Vokal and have now fully exited the parent company Bombinate Technologies,” Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO and co-founder, Koo said.

Koo, touted as the desi alternative to Twitter, had shot to fame last month with many users flocking to its platform. Many government ministries, too, opened their accounts on the Indian platform. The popularity of Koo also came amid a brief standoff between Twitter and the government over the removal of the content.

Koo, however, faced questions over its link with the Chinese investor as well. During an interview with HT Tech, Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawatka had said that Shunwei Capital had invested in their previous product about two and a half years ago.

“That investment made Shunwei a single-digit stakeholder in our company. They understand and appreciate the stance of the government and larger interest in the company. They’re moving out of their investment in our holding company,” Bidawatka had said.

He also stressed that Koo is a new product that was made less than a year back. The platform had raised recent funds from 3one4 Capital and our existing investors. He added that Shunwei Capital had not participated in the funding round.