Ex-Gojek employees raise $550k for home construction platform

Four former Gojek employees have raised US$550,000 in pre-seed funding for Kolo, an India-based home construction marketplace.

Jery Althaf, Pranav Garg, Aayush Sharda, and Vivek Mittal worked together for the Southeast Asian super app before leaving to build their own social platform for homeowners.

See also: Uncovering Southeast Asia’s hidden Grab and Gojek mafia

Led by India-focused seed fund Better Capital, Kolo’s funding round was also joined by Singularity Ventures and angel investors like Aldi Haryopratomo, former GoPay CEO; Aakash Dharmadhikari, chief product officer of Jiva.ag; Sujayath Ali, co-founder of ShopUp; Rajesh Sawhney, founder of GSF; and Vir Kasyap, founder of Babajob.

Team Kolo / Photo credit: Kolo

Through its platform, Kolo connects homeowners and providers of construction services and materials for building projects. Users can also view design templates to inform their choices, or look for specific products or professionals. The startup claims that it has grown 5x in terms of monthly active users between May and August this year. 

“We found that decision-making in home construction is inherently a ‘social’ activity. The homeowners go through huge volumes of content and interact with their family, relatives, and service professionals to make decisions about their ‘dream home’,” said Althaf, one of Kolo’s co-founders.

Vaibhav Domkundwar, founder and CEO of Better Capital, estimates that the home-building market in India is worth US$200 billion but suffers from “an opaque ecosystem and a broken consumer experience.”