Veera, a rewards-powered internet browser, announced it had raised $6 million in seed funding led by Ayon Capital, a Florida-based single-family office.
Ayon Capital previously invested in Vested Finance, an online platform enabling Indian investors to invest in the US stock market.
The funding round included participation from various investors, both institutions and angels, such as 6th Man Ventures, Folius Ventures, The Operating Group, and iSeed Ventures.
Ayon Capital, an investor in Brave, a privacy-focused internet browser, is also part of this round. The team behind Brave had previously built Firefox.
Arjun Ghose, Founder and CEO, stated that the additional capital would be used to grow the company’s engineering team, speed up product development, improve infrastructure, and invest in marketing initiatives.
“We are thrilled to have secured this funding from Ayon Capital and other top-tier investors. This investment validates our vision to revolutionize the mobile internet experience in India. The overwhelming response from users following the introduction of our rewards program and the launch of our super-fast browser has reinforced the need for a product like Veera in India… We aim to continue innovating and delivering value to our users as we solidify Veera’s position as the preferred browser for Indian internet users,” Ghose said.
“What better distribution platform than a browser, an application that almost all of us irrespective of socioeconomic status, open every day and spend immense amounts of time on it. It just hasn’t been leveraged to be a distribution or discoverability platform. That is the gap or opportunity we saw,” Ghose added.
In September 2023, Veera introduced its mobile-only internet browser, which was entirely developed in India. According to Ghose, the browser, featuring customized content and ad-blocking services, has surpassed 100,000 users.
Additionally, the company initiated an engagement-driven rewards program to encourage user loyalty and interaction on the Veera platform through gamification.
Ghose, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and Wharton, has a background as an investor at firms like Falcon Edge and Pantheon Ventures. He previously held positions at The Carlyle Group and McKinsey & Company.
Ghose co-founded the company with Rahul Pagidipati, the founder and former CEO of Zebpay. The founding advisors included Aditya Julka, a serial entrepreneur and founder of Paddle8, and Kanu Gupta, a founding leader at Goldman Sachs in India and a serial investor.
