Wishfie, short-video platform for public opinions on news, raises angel funding

Wishfie, the Bengaluru based short-video platform raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Staffopedia CEO, Abhishek Singh and a New York based angel network, Tusker Invests. According to a press statement released by the company, this funding will be used to develop the product further, to support vernacular content, and to build its community. The company intends to raise its pre-series A round later this year to fuel its growth.

Founded by Durgesh Kaushik who worked with Facebook, Wishfie is video sharing social media platform that helps people voice their opinions on news, trending stories and issues. The company has been co-founded by Akshay Pruthi, NSIT Alumni and ex-CEO of Reach, and Anurag Dalia, a serial entrepreneur.

Speaking on the development, Durgesh Kaushik, Co-Founder & CEO said, “Our mission is to ensure everyone gets an opportunity to participate in building the world of tomorrow.  Ubiquitous Internet access is just the step one towards that direction; giving people a platform to voice their opinions is even more important. That’s why we decided to build Wishfie, which leverages the growing mobile and video adoption to empower people to share their opinions on anything that matters to them, in the simplest way possible.”

Durgesh Kaushik, Co-founder & CEO, Wishfie

Wishfie in its current form was publicly launched in January of this year. Recently, it was selected by Facebook for its FBStart program and was featured among top video-opinion platforms on Google Play. Since launch, almost 10,000 topics have been posted on its platform and its users are uploading around 200 short-videos every day to express their opinions.

The company is also in talks with various news networks and journalists who wish to leverage Wishfie’s public opinion videos to augment their news articles. Wishfie also intends to on-board aspiring journalists who will help collect public opinions on local news.

“Wishfie is a video-first platform that simplifies how people make themselves heard on social media. Unlike Q&A platforms, it doesn’t require right answers or a certain level of expertise for people to participate. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, whether the world agrees with them or not. We are building a platform for common people because everyone’s opinions matter,” added Kaushik.

Wishfie’s co-founder, Akshay Pruthi, founded and scaled the Reach App to over 1 Lakh users and 20 million transactions before selling it to ixigo.  While, Anurag Dalia, Wishfie’s engineering lead is a serial entrepreneur, who’s developed over 15 apps and platforms that have scaled globally. Anurag is a well-known techie with over 25K Twitter followers.

Sharing his thoughts, Pruthi said, “We are focusing on content generated by real people, using their mobile’s selfie-cameras. Wishfie serves a very fundamental human need of ‘being heard. Hence, we believe Wishfie would not only scale in India, but will become a global go-to opinion-sharing platform”.

Some of Wishfie’s notable users include MTV Roadies contestants, South Indian actor, director Ramesh Aravind, Nearby CEO – Ankur Warikoo, BHIVE CEO – Shesh Rao Paplikar, reporters, journalists and toastmasters.