‘Better Opinions’, a rather unique startup that lets users trade their opinions on events in various categories, has now landed a $2.5Mn round from Metaplanet VC and Goldwater capital. This comes just months after it had previously raised $1Mn in a pre-seed round. Better Opinions is also backed by YCombinator.
Better Opinions is looking to tap into the possible potential of the prediction market. Its app allows users to trade their opinions with real money on events in various categories such as cricket, cryptocurrency, politics and entertainment. Prediction markets are a relatively new asset class where users can trade on future unknown events and earn money.
Since its launch, Better Opinions has expanded from continuous double auction trades, where users can trade on yes/no outcomes, to polls, where users can choose from multiple options to trade. Better Opinions also plans to add a social layer on to trading, to make trading more accessible, fun and educational. Traction wise, Better Opinions claims to have over 600,000 users, with coverage of over 14,000 events.
The funds raised will be used to build & expand the product and tech team, towards marketing and user growth. Soumyajit Das, Co-founder CTO, says, “Some of our investors’ portfolio companies include The Boring Company, TikTok, Reddit and Binance. It’s heartwarming to see such investors having faith and belief in our product and team. The funding will also help with our tech and infrastructure scale up plans.”
Apparently, Facebook parent meta, which has now visionised the entire company around Metaverse, is also reportedly eyeing an investment in Better Opinions. TechCrunch reports that Meta could invest part of a possible $3Mn round in the prediction app. So far, the only two investments made by Meta in the Indian startup sector include social commerce platform Meesho back in 2019 and edtech firm Unacademy a year later.
“Our aim is to make the app inclusive for all. The stock market unfortunately can be very technical and opaque and therefore isn’t always accessible for all. However, when we start allowing trading in categories such as cricket, politics, and entertainment, not only do we make trading more relatable, but we also help improve their financial literacy,” Co founder Samay Jain said in a statement.
The startup tasted success quite early in its tenure. Jain said that it has already gathered 600,000 users who have traded over $1.25 million on the platform. The Real Money Gaming App launched by the startup in December last year was a huge hit as well – it clocked 1.5 lakh sign-ups within a month of its launch.
It raised, in its pre-seed round in February 2022, over $1 million in a pre-seed round from Y Combinator, Java Capital, Soma Capital, and angel investors such as Kumar.
