Conversational learning startup Mentza raises $400K in funding led by Inflection Point Ventures

Audio-based conversational learning startup Mentza today announced it has raised $400,000 (about Rs 2.96 crore) in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, a Gurgaon-based angel investment firm.

This is IPV's 32nd investment for 2021 and is likely to invest Rs 155 crore this year across 60 plus startups. The firm had earlier invested in Endimension, Shadez, Neuropixel.ai, Streak, among several others.

According to a release, Mentza will utilize the raised funding in building a healthy base of experts and curious learners, building an efficient translation of conversations into content, and to broad base the platform regionally and across interest communities.

At present, The start-up has over 23,000 registered users and has already generated over 60,000 minutes of content on its platform.

Founded in 2020 by Anurag Vaish, Mumbai-based Mentza is a one of its kind audio-based conversational learning platform that enables users to engage through high-quality focused 20-minute conversations across diverse topics. The conversations are recorded with features like highlights, 40-second snippets, and curated content recommendations.

"Our mission is to get every growth-minded person to engage in at least one Mentza conversation every day, thus making learning effortless, continuous, and social. IPV’s investor community has CXOs who understand the need for continuous learning in today’s challenging growth environments. Thus, making them the ideal strategic partners in our vision," Anurag Vaish, Founder of Mentza said.

The startup in a statement said that its team has a cumulative 80 years of work experience with deep expertise across tech, design, cognitive sciences, research, and marketing. 

The team is using its background and knowledge in data science to influence user engagement and retention. They have built the most robust & democratized short-form live audio platform with unique features like a live highlighter, audio portfolios, and creators’ studio.

It recently announced creator partnerships with Rolling Stones and Harper Collins and is in talks with MICA faculty & students to engage them on the platform.

Mentza is building both B2B and B2C use cases. Users can build a portfolio of recorded conversations with highlights and snippets.

Speaking on the investment, Ankur Mittal, Co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures, said:

“Mentza’s model of delivering curated content in 20 minutes capsules is a powerful idea. Audio is a powerful tool that allows you to learn and participate while multi-tasking. Mentza is looking to build an audio-focused conversational learning platform in a community setting, led by a team of strong second-time founders with diverse backgrounds and strengths."

"Many funds we spoke with as part of our due diligence also showed keen interest in this space. While B2C is the immediate focus, Mentza is separately also working on a focused B2B strategy going after large untapped Enterprise Podcast space, he adds.

The startup claimed to be the first-ever organization in the world to build audio portfolios, recordings, and live highlights. Through its platform, Mentza promotes active learning where any participant can request to speak vs monologues/passive listening in other audio formats.

Apart from this, Mentza's platform catalogues the content into an audio portfolio of eligible users and is testing AI-generated profiles of expertise and personality. The platform is also offered as an enterprise solution for internal use within organizations.

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