YourStoryTech30 startup Hansel raises $4 M from IDG Ventures, others

Hansel is a product-ops company that helps businesses personalise user experience without disrupting its tech roadmap.

Bengalurub-based Hansel.io, one among the Tech30 startups of YourStory TechSparks 2016, has raised $4 million from Vertex Ventures and existing investors IDG Ventures India and Endiya Partners. The company aims to expand internationally and strengthen the team with the new funding.

Founded by Varun Ramamurthy, Parminder Singh, and Mudit Mathur in 2015, Hansel allows mobile developers to instantly deploy hotfixes to their live mobile apps. The B2B enterprise software solves issues during runtime, without the need for users to update the app.

Usually, any change to a user experience demands weeks of development effort. Release cycles vary across mobile, web, and other platforms like Amazon’s Alexa. But Hansel claims that its product ‘Experience Lake’ provides a single repository of user experiences across any platform. (This is because the various user experience treatments are hardcoded in the applications.)

It ensures that product teams can personalise user experiences at their own pace, while freeing tech teams to focus on the larger picture. Hansel claims that their product will help businesses take on Uber and Amazon in tech experience.

Abhishek Srivastava, Director with Endiya Partners, has said in a press release, “Hansel's presence in more than a quarter billion unique smartphones is only a testament to the growing need for hyper-personalised experiences with faster and cost-effective turnaround.”

Strong team

Built by a team of techies who were previously working with Zynga, Disney and Flipkart, Hansel is inspired by the microservices architecture. Hansel claims to democratise access to relevant parts of the user experience and provide the right set of tools and constraints to business teams. It enables them to test and personalise at a pace like never before.

In December 2015, Hansel raised a seed round from Endiya Partners, Tracxn Labs, and angel investors including Mekin Maheshwari (ex Flipkart CPO), Uday Sodhi (Head, Digital Business at Sony Pictures), Rajesh Sawhney (founder of Innerchef). In January 2017, Hansel raised $1.35million in Pre-Series A round from IDG Ventures India and Endiya Partners.

In the press release, Piyush Kharbanda, Executive Director at Vertex Ventures has said, “Historically, companies have struggled to emulate the rapid pace with which the top four tech giants test and personalise product experiences. Hansel’s technology helps its customers drive new product experiences without getting bottlenecked at the code.”