Saturday, April 20

Puneet Dalmia Invests in “Online Citizen Engagement Platform LocalCircles”

After getting funded by leading industrialists, Anand Mahindra and Nadir Godrej, online citizen engagement platform LocalCircles said Dalmia Group Managing Director Puneet Dalmia has become an investor in the company.

LocalCircles, which enables citizens to connect with national and local governance, will use the funds to expand its presence, strengthen technology and recruit more talent, LocalCircles Chief Strategy Officer K Yatish Rajawat said.

He, however, declined to comment on details of the investment. “We have a user base of about one million users. We see this growing to about 30 million in the next 3-5 years. We will use the funds to double our presence to 200 cities,” he added.

Sachin Taparia, Chairman and CEO, LocalCircles said the company represents Social Media 2.0, which is focussed on solving real world problems by bringing people together. “What LocalCircles has built is incredibly unique as it takes Social Media to a new level and enables the common citizen to become part of a community beyond immediate friends and family.

“A community that comes together to assist each other locally as well as engages with the administration on making things better locally and nationally,” Dalmia said. LocalCircles senior management team comprises of Sachin Taparia, former Managing Director at Boeing International, Abhishek Gupta, formerly at Oracle Inc, Mukesh Gupta, former executive of Juniper Networks and Rajawat, former Group Managing Editor of Dainik Bhaskar group.

The advisory board of LocalCircles includes Nadir Godrej, Managing Director of Godrej Industries, RC Bhargava, Chairman Maruti Suzuki and Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group.