Start-up Fund – Rainmaker Ventures invests USD 5 Mn in YAAP

                                                                                  

YAAP is a super specialty digital content company and this fund will enable it to up its digital content service line of design, discovery and distribution

Mumbai, 12th July 2016: Rainmaker Ventures – Co-Founded by Industrialist Sudhir Menon and Digital Marketer Atul Hegde, announced that it has invested USD 5 Mn in YAAP – a super specialty digital content company.

Rainmaker Ventures with presence in India, USA, Brazil and Singapore is an early stage start-up fund of $US50mn that was launched in December last year. Rainmaker Ventures identifies competent start-ups and not only invests seed-capital, but also, wholly mentors these establishments through the co-founders collective expertise of growing successful businesses in the past. 

YAAP, focusses on the 3 digital content service lines of Design, Discovery and Distribution. In Content design the firm looks at branded content, digital show formats, syndication, brand and visual identity, in Content discovery it looks at influencer identification, outreach and empanelment and in Content distribution it looks at programmatic content placement, alliances and channel partnerships. The focus being creating and distributing engaging content for businesses to attract, retain and deliver customer satisfaction.

YAAP has a non CEO, Partner model where digital media professionals Nikhil Bapat & Manan Kapur have joined in as Partners in Mumbai & Gurgaon respectively. The company will use majority of the funds invested by Rainmaker Ventures for acquisitions in the Branding & Visual Identity space, Automated content distribution platforms & Content creation platforms. The funds would also be utilized for YAAP’s expansion plans in the Singapore & USA market where they plan to open offices by early next year.

Sudhir Menon, Co-Founder, Rainmaker Ventures added, “YAAP is a perfect example of the nature of investments Rainmaker Ventures wants to lead. We will contribute both Capital & Mentorship to YAAP. We see YAAP become a leading player in the digital content ecosystem within the next 2 years. We have a fantastic model & the senior team in place and now will go out aggressively looking for the right acquisitions." 

In a joint statement Nikhil Bapat & Manan Kapur, Partners at YAAP said “At YAAP we are trying to build a unique model both from our offerings & the company strucutre itself. We are happy to find a partner like Rainmake Ventures that is so bullish of the Digital Content sector and are going beyond infusion of capital into the company, with active mentoring of the management team. “

Atul Hegde, Co-Founder Rainmaker Ventures will be the Chief Mentor and join the YAAP board post this investment. 

This is the second investment made by Rainmaker Ventures, an early seed-fund that was launched in December last year. The fund is already in the process of investing in compelling businesses that are impactful in nature. Expansion will also be enabled with more senior professionals from varied sectors joining the company as full time mentors.