Swirl secures a $1.1M seed funding round led by Shastra VC (formerly Veda VC) to take video commerce to the global market

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The story of Swirl began in 2021, fueled by a simple observation: despite the surge in online shopping, 98% of visitors on e-commerce platforms still don't convert. We wanted to fix that. 

Bheshaj and I, saw an opportunity in live commerce to bridge this gap, combining the convenience of online shopping with the human touch of physical stores.

We were early adopters of live commerce technology, driven by a belief that video would redefine e-commerce. The pandemic accelerated our vision, and Swirl emerged as a solution for businesses seeking an immersive online shopping experience. 

Today, we've been fortunate to partner with leading brands like Puma, VIVO, TVS, GKHair, Traya, and Arvind Brands, among 100 other eCommerce brands demonstrating the versatility and impact of our solution across diverse industries. 

We've witnessed the positive impact of Swirl on businesses with: 

• 3X increase in e-commerce conversions
• 40% higher return on ad spend
• 35% engagement rate
• Average 13X return on investment

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Today, I am thrilled to announce a significant milestone in our journey – Swirl has raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by Shastra VC (formerly Veda VC), a prominent venture capital fund, with significant participation from accomplished angel investors spanning India, Middle East, and USA, including Aakrit Vaish (CEO Haptik), Shan Krishnasamy (Ex-CTO Freshworks), Mohammed Dewji (CEO MeTL), Naim Siddiqui (CEO Momentum), Anil Goteti (Ex-SVP Flipkart), Jiten Patri (Ex-CMO Future Group), Arun Prabhudesai (TrakinTech), Neha Kulwal (MD Mitgo), Ratan Ingu (CEO Uncode), Paresh Chaudhry (Ex-CEO Madison), Rajesh Janey (Founder, Scalorg), Shammi Moza (Ex-Flipkart), Amit Sharma (Executive Director - NextGen Intl. DMCC), Prashant Rathi (Co-Founder at PhotonFin), Sharmil Shah (CTO @ Delivery Solutions), Angelo Anthony (MD, Standard Chartered Bank), Zulfikar Chandoo (Founder at ZC Capital Advisory), Vaibhav Kothari (Founder OMVAI), Shah Faisal (Head of Corporate Banking at BOK International Bank), Rustom Mody (Sr. Vice President at Sun Pharma), Apoorv Sharma (Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Uber) and others.

With this funding, we're poised to take Swirl to the next level. We have already built a strong validation with global brands across India, Middle East and Europe. With the funding, we'll expand our reach to the massive $100bn+ US and UAE markets, while strengthening our product suite with a focus on deep AI integration to systematically extract contextual insights from videos at scale.

By harnessing the power of AI using video context metadata and LLM, Swirl will be able to drive quantifiable sales uplift, creating a seamless and personalised customer experience that is 10X better than what a user sees today. Moreover, it will help boost SEO, by bringing in new traffic through organic sources due to enhanced metadata.

In addition, Swirl will leverage video context metadata to train a 24/7 chatbot within the video, offering instant product recommendations, enticing users with add-ons, and bundle offers. Our mission remains steadfast – to elevate user engagement by providing more personalized and relevant video content that boosts conversions and ROI for the brand. 

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who’s been on this journey with us- our customers, investors, partners, and the and the entire Swirl team. Your belief in our vision and dedication to excellence have propelled us to this exciting milestone.

Sharing a quote below from our lead investor Venus Dhuria, Partner at Shastra VC

“Swirl taps into the trillion-dollar global video commerce market with a unique approach to building a global leader in enterprise and SaaS from India. Their differentiated product, frugal mindset, and relentless focus on business fundamentals positions them well for scaling up across global markets”‍

As we celebrate this milestone, we look forward to the next chapter of Swirl's journey, with the goal of bringing brands closer to consumers and ushering in a new era of interactive, immersive shopping experiences

This is just the beginning. It's only day 0 and there are miles to go, many mountains to climb before we realise our global domination ambitions.

Warm regards,
Kaizad Hansotia
Founder and CEO, Swirl