SOSV leads pre-Series A funding round in live video commerce platform KIKO TV

MUMBAI, India, Jan. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KIKO TV, a company that has built a solution for live streaming video commerce for the Indian market, has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A funding round led by the US venture capital fund SOSV and will be shortly graduating from their Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX) program. The funding round is open and a few more investors are expected to co-invest in this round. SOSV provides intellectual and financial capital to accelerate founders' big ideas and is among the world's most active and successful global investors, having delivered a net IRR over the last 20 years that puts them in the top 10% of all venture funds worldwide.

KIKO TV plans to disrupt the mobile commerce space with live shopping and live interactions between sellers and buyers, taking the native shopping experience to the virtual mobile screen. Their unique AI technology also scans entertainment content and shows suggested products for purchase by scanning products and apparel in the video being watched.

The money will be used to accelerate the product roadmap and increase adoption. KIKO TV recently raised their seed round from 9Unicorns and this is their second raise.

"We are extremely elated to be part of the SOSV MOX family, as the MOX program provides not only funding but also a lot of training to scale the business and access to their global mentor network. As the speed of internet available on all devices grows, and as the widespread use of 5G technology is becoming inevitable, live video commerce will be the future of shopping. It is our vision to be a market leader in this category," says Shivam Varshney, Co-founder and CEO of KIKO TV.

"Live video is the logical evolution of e-commerce and shopping habits. There are enormous opportunities for mobile-first players, and we cannot think of a better team to work with than KIKO TV," says William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director of MOX.

Live commerce, after taking off in China and other Asian markets, it is growing quickly in America and the rest of the world (Bloomberg). KPMG and Alibaba expected the live streaming e-commerce market in China to exceed USD 150 billion in 2020, and India is following suit (CNA).

About KIKO TV

KIKO TV was founded in August 2020 and is among the first movers in the live-video commerce sector. India has close to 500 million internet users, of which less than 10% transact online. Traditional e-commerce lacks instant buyer-seller interaction and there are also trust issues when buying from an unknown online seller. Live video commerce solves these issues, and helps stores get virtual "walk-in" customers, not just from their nearby locations, but from across the country. It also helps content creators monetize their video content.

About SOSV

SOSV is a multi-stage venture capital investor. We run multiple world-class vertical accelerator programs and provide seed, venture and growth-stage follow-on investment into superstar companies. Our unique full-stack model has delivered a net IRR over the last 20 years that puts us in the top 10% of all venture funds worldwide.

SOSV provides intellectual and financial capital to accelerate founders' big ideas for positive change. SOSV has funded over 1000 startups to date. We currently fund over 150 startups per year through our programs: HAX (hardware and connected devices), IndieBio (life sciences), Chinaccelerator and MOX (cross-border internet and mobile in Asia), dlab (blockchain, data and decentralization), and Food-X (food innovation).