CSR-tech platform Goodera raises $10 million in funding from Zoom Ventures, Binny Bansal, others

This is also the first investment in India for Zoom Ventures, the investment arm of US-based video-conferencing platform Zoom.

Founded in 2014, Goodera initially built a platform for Indian corporates to manage corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments and assess their social impact. After the onset of the Covid pandemic, it turned into an employee volunteering platform. “In a transaction that happened parallel to Goodera’s fundraise, they sold the India CSR platform business to (non-profit organisation) Give. The move will allow Goodera to focus on the explosive global growth of their volunteering platform,” the company said.

The company expects to more than double its revenue in 2022, compared to 2021. It did not, however, disclose the details of its financials. Goodera was one of the nominees in the
Social Enterprise category of the ET Startup Awards’ 2021 edition.

Founded and led by IIM Bangalore alumnus Abhishek Humbad, Goodera provides its customers, who are mostly employers based in the US, a catalogue of volunteering opportunities for their employees. The company counts large corporations such as IBM, Target, EY and Amazon among its customers, and has provided volunteering opportunities to more than 10 million employees through its customers.

“Goodera’s technology simplifies volunteering and eliminates overheads, thereby offering millions of employees the opportunity to volunteer…This fundraise will help us scale our infrastructure to further our vision of making volunteering more accessible and impactful,” said Humbad, who serves as CEO. The company plans to invest the freshly raised funds to build its team, technology and catalogue, as it aims to serve over 100 million employees by 2025.

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“Goodera’s story is inspiring for India’s startup ambitions — from a dramatic turnaround during the pandemic to a stellar US go-to-market that won them Fortune 500 customers. They are building a truly global business from the ground up in a market that was due for disruption,” said Bansal.

“Goodera’s growth in the last two years is the reward that the market gives you to build novel solutions from 0 to 1,” said Elevation Capital’s Ravi Adusumalli. “Abhishek and the team at Goodera have unmatched expertise in the domain and are building a whole new category with their employee volunteering solutions, and we are excited to continue supporting them with scale.”