DanaMojo, a payments solution platform for NGOs, on Wednesday said it has raised Rs 3.05 crore in funding from a clutch of investors including Rohini Nilekani and Social Alpha. Other investors in DanaMojo’s first round of funding included Pravin Gandhi, General Partner of Seedfund Venture Fund and Vasanthi Anand, a statement said. Founded by Dhaval Udani in 2016, DanaMojo aims to simplify online payments for NGOs and reduce the overall time, energy and cost involved in managing their donations. Since its inception, DanaMojo has onboarded over 900 NGOs.
This investment is extremely encouraging for social entrepreneurs in India. With my experience in the NGO space, I understand the need for specialised services for non-profit organisations and we hope to strengthen our offering to assist them in the best way possible, Udani, founder and CEO of DanaMojo, said. Rohini Nilekani had set up Arghyam that works for sustainable water and sanitation. In 2017, she, together with her husband Nandan Nilekani (Infosys co-founder), signed the Giving Pledge, committing more than half their wealth to charitable causes. “India needs many intermediary organisations, in both the non-profit and for-profit spaces, beyond donors and their receiving partners, to truly influence the aggregated impact at scale.
There are many capacities that fall between the capabilities of donor and partner organisations that more specialised entities can build,” Rohini Nilekani said. DanaMojo is one such entity – a platform for simplified individual giving – that fills the need of the hour, she added. “We hope the patient capital invested will enable several organisations to build their communities of support, networks, impact, and organisational capacities, enabled by DanaMojo, she said. Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO of Social Alpha, said the increase in online giving shows there is a growing preference to donate via digital channels. “Through its integrated payment solutions, DanaMojo will empower donors to play a critical role in helping the vulnerable communities that have suffered the most during the lockdown. Technology can improve philanthropy by making a noble gesture effective, collaborative, transparent, and democratic,” he said.
