Protonn, a business-in-a-box platform for professionals, has announced a seed fundraise totaling $9 million. The round is led by Matrix Partners India along with other venture investors including 021 Capital and Tanglin Venture Partners. Angel investors participating in the round include Binny Bansal (co-founder, Flipkart), Kalyan Krishnamurthy (CEO, Flipkart), Neeraj Arora (ex-WhatsApp), Sujeet Kumar (co-founder, Udaan), and Kunal Shah (founder, Cred).
Protonn was co-founded by Anil Goteti and Mausam Bhatt, both of whom have a track record of scaling tech companies. Goteti held several leadership positions at Flipkart, the $38B Indian e-commerce giant that was acquired by Walmart in 2018, most recently serving as the senior vice president of marketing and ads.
Bhatt most recently served as head of product management for Google Commerce (Buy on Google), chief product officer of RetailMeNot, and held a variety of leadership positions at Flipkart. They formed Protonn in November of 2020 and will use the seed funding for new hires, launching the product to market, and continued product development.
“Independent professionals power the economic engine of the world,” said Anil Goteti, co-founder of Protonn. “In the United States alone, nearly 60 million independent professionals generate more than $1.2 trillion in annual earnings—that’s 36 percent of the total U.S. workforce. ‘Proto’ in Greek means ‘first’, and Protonn’s purpose is to put the needs of those millions of professionals first to help them thrive.”
“Video technology in professional settings hasn’t kept pace with advances on the consumer front pioneered by apps like Snapchat and TikTok,” said Mausam Bhatt, co-founder of Protonn. “Protonn is leading that change by providing professionals with an easy way to market themselves using video and manage their business.”
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.