Facebook-parent Meta hasn’t stopped hunting for startups in the Indian market and is now eyeing investment into the early-stage startup Better Opinions, which is reportedly building “the prediction market” for India.
According to a report by TechCrunch, Meta and Better Opinions founders are currently engaged in discussions. If succeeded, this will be Meta’s third startup investment in India.
Meta had, in 2019, invested $25 million in Meesho, valued at $2.1 billion after its last funding round in April 2021. The social networking giant had participated in a $110 million investment round in edtech enterprise Unacademy, valued at $3.4 billion during its last funding round.
Better Opinions has an app allowing individuals to trade their opinions on everyday topics and win real cash if predictions are correct. Notably, these topics include predicting the price of a cryptocurrency token at a specific time in the future, box office collection of new titles and views a YouTube will be able to garner during a specific period. Not just that, the app users can also make predictions on the results of cricket matches!
“You can set your price, hedge and trade using Better Opinions. With our insights and your skills, you can trade and profit. We want to make trading an exciting exercise,” as per information available on the startup’s website.
The publication reported that the startup is raising up to $3 million at a valuation below $25 million, and the Facebook parent is in talks to participate in the round.
The startup, which competes with Kalshi and Dream11 in the prediction market, has so far raised $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Metaplanet VC, YCombinator, Taurus VC, Original Capital, Tremis Capital, Goodwater Capital and Super Capital.
Samay Jain and Soumyajit Das, both GoJek alums, founded Better Opinions last year. The startup has corned 600,000 users who have traded over $1.25 million on the platform.
The startup plans to make revenue by charging brokerage fees, selling subscriptions, and market making, the publication reported.
“Better Opinions is attempting to open the world of investments to people who have an understanding of specific subjects but are unable to make use of it in the stock markets,” the publication reported citing a memo by an investor.
Facebook India’s managing director Ajit Mohan told the Indian media last year that the company was focused on backing innovative models that have the potential for growth in India and can be scaled up globally.
“We will continue to look for investment opportunities in early-stage startups,” he said then, adding that the company’s search for investments is “sector agnostic” and is open to exploring younger startups across business verticals.
Meta had in 2020 launched the $100 million “Facebook Business Grant” for 30 countries, including India. The company revealed that around $4 million were deployed to 3,000 Indian SMBs across the five cities, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, for the companies impacted by the pandemic.
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