Indian Angel Network invests in PropheSee

PropheSee, a Delhi-based digital analytics startup has raised Rs. 3.3 Crores (USD 516K) in angel funding through a co-investment from the Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India (SA&E India). PropheSee is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that empowers brands with data driven insights that allow managers to take the most informed decisions, compare & analyse digital campaigns & execute directly from the platform itself. Ajay Lavakare led the round on behalf of IAN & SA&E India & will be joining the Board of Directors along with PropheSee’s advisor & mentor, Sujal Shah (CXO/Investor, MissMalini Media & MD Bandra Road Advisory) to help drive growth & scale over the coming months.

The data analytics market is expected to surpass USD 42 Billion through 2018, at a growth rate almost 6 times as that of the overall IT market. PropheSee also wants to address the issue centered on access to analytics & is working towards bringing robust analytics to startups & small & medium businesses at a fraction of current costs.  The platform is targeted towards brands investing in the digital arena that includes but is not limited to e-commerce, fashion, publishers, app based services and media & entertainment firms. On ground, PropheSee is used by C level decision makers, brand & marketing managers, social media teams & digital agencies.

Ajay Lavakare commented on the investment saying, “PropheSee is a startup that distinguishes itself from other SaaS companies by offering a comprehensive solution to brands to manage their digital presence across multiple platforms. We are also very impressed with the caliber of the founding team. With its affordable cost to small and medium businesses and its focus on empowering companies to understand and act upon their social/digital performance, PropheSee has the potential to scale rapidly.”

The funding will be used to scale technology & build core talent. The key focus areas over the next six months include the development of more industry specific analytics & modules, investing in predictive algorithms & data visualisation methods to facilitate better utility and decision making by management, from their data and insights. PropheSee also plans to build further audience listening & community management capabilities in addition to testing new methods to measure consumer engagement, intent & other behaviours.

Commenting on the investment, Paula Mariwala, President of SA&E India said, “We are excited to make our first investment as an angel group in India. PropheSee operates in a space that is seeing rapid technology innovations and disruptions. With this investment, PropheSee will be able to leverage the Silicon Valley and Stanford University connections of the Stanford Angels members to continuously innovate on its technology and business model to stay ahead of competition, and also attract great talent.”

In the progressive data analytics arena, brands are using multiple platforms to manage their digital presences which often leads to problems around data reconciliation & a significant budget & time waste. As a consolidated platform, PropheSee leads to increased capital efficiency. Additionally, by tracking end-to-end digital data, brands can take a much more cohesive approach to digital as decision makers are able to analyse each channel in isolation as well as any effects a channel may have on another

Sujal Shah added, “PropheSee addresses a big problem in one of the fastest growing social media and digital markets in the world.  Managers are lacking an affordable and robust platform that allows them to track their digital/social footprint in one place. PropheSee empowers managers to make faster, data driven decisions with a one-stop shop platform that also allows for campaign execution and content delivery across social channels.  The management team is young, hungry, and consumed with the idea of building a platform that continuously evolves to meet the demands of it clients and partners.”

PropheSee’s mission is to develop into a new “Salesforce” for brands investing in the digital space by providing them with an efficient & affordable tool to track, manage & execute their digital strategies. The platform does this through ...comprehensive tracking across digital channels such as social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) web analytics & several more. The platform will be tracking upwards of 40 channels in the 6 months with new developments in their analytics & reporting modules alongside content discovery, execution & monitoring features.

PropheSee co-founder & CEO, Ishaan Sethi added “Our key focus is to deliver actionable insights using big data technologies to run pioneering analytics. All companies should have access to digestible, actionable insights from their social and digital presences. While the primary focus thus far has been on descriptive analytics with the goal to help brands take control of their data, the platform will soon be capable of running predictive analytics to model consumer behaviour (among other trends) based on digital data. The next six months are extremely exciting for us as we take this platform live globally.”

The company was founded in November 2014 by three co-founders, Ishaan Sethi, Harshil Gurha and Jitesh Luthra. Ishaan is a graduate from Brown University (focus on economics & applied math) and has worked in big data marketing analytics in the New York City for various film & television brands such as Sony Pictures, Showtime, Universal Pictures etc. Harshil and Jitesh are batch mates from Manipal University & majored in computer engineering. Harshil has worked at Samsung India and has extensive knowledge of front & back end technologies. Jitesh has worked with KPMG India as part of their Business Intelligence team where he worked on analysing large data sets for clients.