Trell, the rapidly expanding lifestyle community commerce platform, has successfully raised $11.4 million in its Series A funding round. The investment was led by KTB Network and Samsung Ventures, among other prominent investors. This funding will support Trell’s continued growth and innovation in the lifestyle and community commerce space.
Trell Secures $11.4 Million in Series A Funding Led by KTB Network
India’s largest lifestyle-community-commerce platform, Trell, has successfully raised $11.4 million in its Series A funding round, led by KTB Network. The round also saw participation from Samsung Ventures, Ankur Nagpal (CEO of Teachable), Gokul Rajaram (Board Member at Pinterest, Square, DoorDash), Vineet Buch (Ex-Head of Google Play Store Development), and Firebolt Ventures, alongside existing investors Sequoia’s Surge, Fosun RZ Capital, and WEH Ventures.
Founded in August 2017 by IIT Bombay alumni Arun Lodhi, Prashant Sachan, Pulkit Agrawal, and NITIE alumnus Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Trell is a mobile app that enables users to share and explore 3-minute vertical videos on interests such as beauty, fashion, technology, and more. The platform supports 20 categories in 8 Indian languages, connecting users with like-minded individuals and providing lifestyle recommendations through social commerce.
Hyesung Kim from KTB Network commented, “Trell has demonstrated remarkable growth, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we believe it’s on the path to becoming a leading lifestyle social discovery platform in India. We’re excited to support this promising venture.”
With over 75 million downloads and 25 million monthly active users, Trell has seen a 27-fold growth in the past year. The platform has experienced a 500% surge since the Chinese app ban, with 15 million+ creators generating over 5 billion monthly views.
Pulkit Agrawal, Co-Founder of Trell, stated, “We are excited to welcome KTB Network and Samsung Ventures as partners and are committed to empowering millions of Indians with better lifestyle choices.”
Prashant Sachan, Co-Founder, added, “The rapid growth and consumer engagement at Trell are encouraging. With over 500 million Indian language internet users seeking lifestyle inspiration, our goal is to be the most relatable community commerce platform.”
The Series A funding will be used to expand Trell’s community, enhance its personalization and recommendation engine with advanced machine learning and AI, and introduce new features to enrich user experience. Trell is also hiring a dynamic team to support its growth.
Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Co-Founder, said, “We are committed to nurturing our creators through the ‘Trell Creators Program’ and will invest in developing 100,000 new opinion leaders to provide valuable content to 100 million Indians.”
Arun Lodhi, Co-Founder, added, “We’re leveraging cutting-edge machine learning and neural networks to offer a personalized experience and support content creators in refining their craft through data-driven insights.”
Trell’s existing angel investors include notable figures like Rajan Anandan, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Ramakant Sharma, Nitin Gupta, Anupam Mittal, Amit Lakhotia, and Shanti Mohan. The company, which was part of Sequoia Capital India’s Surge program, has now raised a total of $16.95 million in funding.