One Impression to utilise $10 million Series A fundraise for business expansion and product development

Influencer marketing startup, One Impression, has bagged $10 million in a Series A round led by South Korean gaming giant Krafton. This signifies a spike in investor interest in ever growing creator economy. Prior to this, the startup had raised $1 million in seed funding from angel investors such as Peeyush Bansal, Anupam Mittal and celebrities like Neeraj Chopra and Zakir Khan.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Apaksh Gupta, Founder & CEO of the company said that they will be utilising the funds for business expansion and product development.

"We will be utilising the fundraise in three key focus areas. One, our product is already creating magic, so we want to invest very heavily in scaling up the business. We also plan to build a lot of seamless tools for creators including creators in tier III and tier IV cities. Second, we also plan to expand internationally. We already transact in countries like Indonesia, Middle East etc, so we want to build localised platforms for those regions. Third, we want to launch a lot of product offerings both for creators and brands, so acquisitions become a very natural pathway for us to scale our business. So we are going to look for opportunities were we can partner with great founders to launch new products and services for all our ecosystem players," Gupta said.

Moreover, a three-day convention in India, which was dubbed the "world's biggest startup-funding event" and prompted hundreds to spend huge amounts of money on it - has turned out to be a hoax of epic proportion, forgery and the biggest scam.

The event promised attendees a chance to meet with ministers, top investors and even the likes of Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai and Softbank's Masayoshi Son.

However, the situation soon turned grim once the attendees realised that they have been duped and no giant investors, no chief guest, no explanations and even no refunds were offered.

The World Startup Convention has left thousands of participants disappointed due to its lack of transparency and questionable claims. While an FIR has been filed, the organisers haven't been arrested yet and there is no clarity if the money will be refunded to the participants.