Social media startup Hunch raises $23M in a Series A round

Social media startup Hunch has raised $23 million in a Series A funding round led by US-based Alpha Wave and South Korea-based Hashed Emergent.

The startup, which launched its app in December 2022, had previously raised $3 million in seed funding. Hunch allows users to engage in conversations and participate in polls anonymously, catering to a wide range of interests from politics to relationship advice.

Boasting over 200K users

The platform boasts over 220,000 monthly active users, with a significant majority based in India and a growing user base in the US. Hunch's engagement strategy focuses on polling and comments, with about 15% of users participating in polls and 40% actively commenting.

Co-founder and CEO Ish Goel emphasizes the startup's aim to scale up its user base significantly in the coming year, with a target of reaching several million users, ideally with a substantial portion from the US.

Enhancing the technological infrastructure 

According to the company's statement, The raised capital will be used towards enhancing the app's technological infrastructure, particularly in AI and machine learning, to improve feed personalization. 

Additionally, Hunch plans to allocate funds for marketing efforts in the US and is committed to maintaining high standards of moderation on the platform. The introduction of a verification feature is also on the horizon, aiming to bolster user trust and safety.

Hunch is headquartered in Dubai and has a team spread across Delhi, Singapore, and London. 

Fostering authentic connections

Hunch aims to foster authentic, meaningful connections among young adults, free from judgment or pretence. The app's anonymous polling feature covers a diverse range of topics, from pop culture to personal finance, enabling users to express their opinions freely.

With over 115,000 polls created and more than 10 million votes cast, Hunch is rapidly becoming a go-to platform for expressing and gathering crowd-sourced intelligence.

Investors comment 

"Crowd-sourced intelligence is a big area of innovation both in the web3 and web2 worlds, and many attempts have been made to build a platform that brings out structured crowd intelligence. We feel Hunch can build on the best of both worlds and emerge as the preferred platform for opinionated individuals."

"Consumer social expects a rejig every few years, and Hunch is poised to drive that change. With fatigue growing amongst Gen Z around apps that promote vicarious living, there is a big opportunity to build something that promotes being real without the filters," Hashed Emergent CEO and managing partner Tak Lee said.