Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group has invested $1 million in Hapramp, a blockchain-based social media startup. Gurugram-based Hapramp will use the seed funding to work on big social media challenges such as user privacy, data security, and fair content monetization as part of its product offering, the startup said on Wednesday.

‘Took 2 yrs, but I finally found the start-up I was looking for! @Hapramp is indigenous, built by 5 young founders & brings together a best-in-class combination of creativity, technology & data protection,’ Mahindra tweeted today.

In 2018, Anand Mahindra had announced on Twitter that he was looking to back an Indian social media startup that meets certain criteria. Founded in 2018 by a team of five Computer Science graduates, Hapramp builds solutions that enable people to take control of their data and earn a fair fraction from its monetary value. The startup has been incubated through its early days by Huddle, a leading sector-agnostic incubator.

‘We are extremely excited and proud to be the next-gen Indian social network startup backed by Mr. Anand Mahindra. This is a massive approval of our mission to give creators the right to their content. The fact that this comes from him, someone whom we admire and who has always supported creators, gives us confidence,’ said Shubhendra Vikram, CEO and co-founder of Hapramp. Hapramp sees itself as an idea lab working on the ideas that emerge from the confluence of the creative industry and information economy.

Besides its flagship social networking solution GoSocial, Hapramp is working on 1Ramp.io, a rewarding social media platform powered by Steem Blockchain; and Asteria Protocol, a new standard for platforms to privately and securely treat public data. Hapramp expects to take them to market in the coming year.

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Anand Mahindra, CEO and co-founder of Hapramp, Computer Science graduate, screativity Hapramp Shubhendra Vikram, technology & data protection, Twitter