ConsCent raises Rs 13.26 crore in a bridge round
ConsCent, an Indian start-up that provides monetisation diversification technology to power reader revenue funnels for news, OTT, and other content platforms, has raised a total of Rs 13.26 crore in a bridge round. The round was led by Inflection Point Ventures. The round also witnessed the participation of early-stage funds like Varanium Capital, RiSo Capital, SucSEED Innovation Fund, Sigurd Ventures, Startup Angels Network, AngelList, PitchRight Ventures, and angels like Quess Corp’s Vijay Sivaram, Droom’s Sandeep Aggarwal, former Rivigo co-founder Gazal Kalra, among others. This is ConsCent’s second round since it raised a seed capital of Rs four crore in August 2020.
The financing is a validation of ConsCent’s vision to create great monetisation opportunities for media and content companies and democratise the consumption of premium content through easy one-click payments, better recommendations, and intelligent engagement, Sunny Sen, CEO and co-founder, ConsCent, said. “We see this as a multi-billion opportunity as we pioneer the concept of pay-per-use to subscription, coupled with ML-driven recommendations, and intelligent paywalls and engagement,” he added.
ConsCent will primarily use the new funding to expand the product. The company plans to expand its technology team and launch over 15 new products and features over the next 12 months, in the areas of payments, engagement and retention, and design.
ConsCent provides micropayment to subscriptions stack with best-in-class analytics and engagement tools. Built on top of a universal login and interoperable payment mechanism, it helps content companies get more paying users and convert them over time into long-term subscribers, and manage their renewals. The ConsCent login system enables users to binge-pay for premium content on all its network partners without having to repeatedly or separately log into them – without losing any data. Digital news publishers and OTT players can use ConsCent to diversify their content monetisation funnels beyond ads and subscriptions by establishing a strong “direct-to-consumer” journey. Some of ConsCent’s existing partners include India Today Group (India Today, Cosmopolitan, and Business Today), Outlook India Group (Outlook India and Outlook Business), MidDay, Indian Retailer, Amar Ujala, Udayavani, Amar Chitra Katha, EPIC On, Tinkle Comics, and New Indian Express.
Former journalists Sunny Sen and Sounak Mitra founded ConsCent to bridge the gap between access and digital payments for premium content. The company has since evolved into an integrated solution that provides content companies with 360-degree insight into consumers and converts scrolling moments into revenue. “With this funding, ConsCent will be able to achieve faster speed-to-market as we expand our technology and sales teams. ConsCent will use the funding to build futuristic tech solutions that will help media companies understand the digital consumer, engage with them in the best way possible while creating technology solutions that will allow media companies to introduce the world’s first intelligent paywall, based on user behaviour understanding of who will pay how much, and for what kind of content, whether it is through pay-per-use or subscriptions,” Sounak Mitra, founder and COO, ConsCent said.
Read Also: Interbrand elevates Gonzalo Brujó to global chief executive