Brands working with Knit include NASCAR, WNBA, Harman International (JBL Speakers) and Moët Hennessey (for 21+ Gen Z-ers). This round is led by Silicon Road Ventures with participation from Bread and Butter Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Bootstrappers.mn, Operate Studio, and TiE Global Angels

Knit, the leading consumer insights startup that empowers brands to make customer-centric decisions through voice of consumer video feedback, today announced an oversubscribed seed funding round of $3.55M. The round is led by Silicon Road Ventures with participation from Bread and Butter Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Bootstrappers.mn, Operate Studio, and TiE Global Angels. Knit’s technology enables customers to tap into a network of over 1 million Gen Z and 4 million Millennial consumers to gather on-demand video feedback and quick-turn quantitative data.

“We think of ourselves as an on-demand Think Tank of Gen Z consumer demographic data for brands. Our goal is to help marketers make more confident decisions to attract their fanbase of the future.”

Through Knit’s platform, brands can upload custom research questions and get 30-90 second “selfie” video responses from hundreds of Gen Z consumers in as quickly as a few hours. With their video analysis AI, brands can then analyze hours of video feedback in minutes – getting to their consumer insights faster.

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“Gen Z is shaping the future of consumer trends, it’s critical for brands today to be empowered with the right information to understand how to successfully engage this next generation,” said Sid Mookerji, Managing Partner and Founder at Silicon Road Ventures. “Knit allows companies to gather and analyze customer feedback of this demographic with little turnaround time, making it an essential, actionable tool for marketers. Knit qualifies as a transformational technology in CommerceTech which is the focus for Silicon Road.”

With this investment, the Austin-based startup will continue to build out its technology to further automate the video analysis process and expand its non-Gen Z panel to become a cross-generational solution for a global customer base, starting with EMEA and LATAM.

“We frequently see major brands with an appetite to better understand Gen Z and the next generation of consumers. The data we’re able to provide empowers these organizations to minimize risks and drive intelligent marketing and product initiatives,” said Raahish Kalaria, CTO at Knit. “We think of ourselves as an on-demand Think Tank of Gen Z consumer demographic data for brands. Our goal is to help marketers make more confident decisions to attract their fanbase of the future.”

Knit has observed seven times growth since its launch in January 2021 with currently over 30 enterprise customers including NASCAR, WNBA, Harman International (JBL Speakers) and Moët Hennessey (for 21+ Gen Z-ers). Led by a team of Gen Z entrepreneurs, Knit CEO Aneesh Dhawan launched his first company, a cause marketing Gen Z agency called Feed A Friend, at the age of 16. Knit CTO Raahish Kalaria joined Knit after founding and scaling FreeCopy, an ad-tech company in India, and One Remote (previously WAND Smart Systems), a computer vision-based home automation solutions, as a Gen-Z student. Dhawan and Kalaria are alumni of the esteemed Techstars’ 2019 accelerator ‘Farm to Fork’ program, the success from this program fueled the transformation and growth of Knit.

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