Apr 19, 2023

KnockSense founders Varul Mayank and Vibhore Mayank Hyperlocal content production platform Knocksense said Wednesday it has secured funding from Nitish Mittersain, founder of gaming company Nazara Technologies, as part of its pre-Series A funding round. The company said it is in the process of closing the $1 million (Rs 8.2 crore) round which has also seen participation from We Founders Circle, LetsVenture, Mumbai Angels Network, and Imperial Holdings. The Lucknow-based startup aims to utilize the funding towards geographical expansion within India to newer Tier II/III cities. Founded by Vibhore Mayank and Varul Mayank, Knocksense is a content production platform that creates local digital and live entertainment content targeted around Tier II/Tier III cities in India. The company claims to have onboarded 25,000 paid subscribers on its platform to date. It is currently present in Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore, and Ahmedabad. In 2021, the company  raised $150,000  as part of a bridge round from We Founder Circle along with Appyhigh, Mumbai Angels Network and angel investors from LetsVenture. In the content platform segment, creator-focused social platform  Plutus raised $280,000  in a pre-seed funding round last month from student-focused VC firm Campus Fund along with CIIE IIM Ahmedabad, Shruti of ApnaKlub and Alagu Preiyannan of Bluejeans. Meanwhile, Nazara Technologies is a Mumbai-listed gaming company. Founded in 2000 by Mittersain, Nazara is a diversified gaming and sports media platform with a presence in India and across global markets such as Africa and North America and has offerings across interactive gaming, e-sports, adtech and gamified early learning ecosystems. In an  interaction with VCCircle  in January, Mittersarin said the company was eyeing acquisitions of larger ticket sizes during the current calendar year and had about Rs 500 crore available for acquisitions to be made this year.