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Dara.network
Techstars '21Bengaluru, IN · Founded 2020 · 2 employees on LinkedIn · 1 known investors
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Dara is a community platform that provides channels, events, and member directories for groups of people working together across different countries. The platform emphasizes privacy, authentic communication through audio, text, and video, and supports community-building for change-makers and cultural organizations.
Also known as Dara Network · Dara.Network Inc.
Investors · 1
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026Dara.network Inc. operates a community platform positioned as an institution-first alternative to Slack, WhatsApp and LinkedIn. Each community on the platform receives its own topic-based channels, events and member directory, alongside rich member profiles that can include video, projects, job calls and social media handles. The product supports asynchronous audio, text and video messaging with transcripts, 1:1 scheduling, and public, private or community-only events, with an emphasis on reducing reliance on synchronous video meetings.
The platform is available on iOS and Android as well as the web. Communities and members can optionally publish profiles, member lists and events to the web to build a public presence. The company states the product contains no advertising and that user data is not sold; individuals can use it for free. Dara.network also produced RadBots, a collection of conversational videobots authored by playwrights, artists and screenwriters from India, Sri Lanka, the UK and Germany, released as an NFT collection and delivered through the platform's asynchronous video-chat capability.
Founding story
The platform is led by co-founders Sean Blagsvedt and Archana Prasad, who sign the company's member-facing pages as founders. Archana Prasad, whose background spans technology, design, art and research, describes herself as Founder and Chief Operations Officer of Gooey.AI / Dara.network and previously founded BeFantastic.in and Jaaga.in. Sean Blagsvedt is listed as Founder and CEO of Gooey.AI, and Dev Aggarwal as technical founder of Dara.network.
Business model
Dara.network provides a hosted community platform used by organizations, which are directed to book a demo and to a published features-and-pricing page; use by individuals is free and the product carries no advertising.
The site points prospective community operators to a features and pricing page and a demo booking flow, while stating the product is free for individuals and ad-free. The company has also received grant funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Traction
The Android app records over 1,000 downloads and the iOS app holds a 5.0 rating from 6 ratings; the iOS app has been updated regularly since 2021, most recently to version 6.2.1 in February 2025. Named users and partners include the Kcymaerxthaere / Eames Foundation team, which uses Dara to coordinate roughly 50 people across different countries, BeFantastic.in, Jaaga, and a Techstars India Accelerator community of founders, alumni, staff and mentors.
Latest developments
The iOS app was updated in February 2025 (versions 6.1.4 and 6.2.1, addressing image uploads and general fixes). In October 2024 the company began a Rockefeller Foundation grant of $237,141, running to January 2026, for developing AI resources to help charitable organizations implement their work; company leadership pages also associate Dara.network with Gooey.AI.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Dara.network describes itself as an ad-free, institution-first alternative to Slack, WhatsApp and LinkedIn, targeting curated communities in the cultural, change-maker and alumni segments rather than general workplace messaging.
Stated points of difference include no advertising and no sale of user data, access across change-making and cultural communities on the platform, channel-based management of multiple communities, asynchronous audio/video messaging with transcripts in place of scheduled video calls, and selective sharing of work-in-progress with vetted peers.
Technology
The platform delivers asynchronous video, audio and text chat with automatic transcripts, topic-based channels, groups, events with RSVP and join-room functionality, QR-code onboarding, @handle linking between users, communities and partners, and locally cached conversations for offline access. The RadBots project combined artificial intelligence with authored screenplays to create conversational videobots on the platform.
Go-to-market
Acquisition runs through the company website with demo booking, a features-and-pricing page, a newsletter and tips/guides content, plus mobile app distribution on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Public community, member and event pages hosted on dara.network serve as an additional discovery channel, and named community partners include Kcymaerxthaere / the Eames Foundation, BeFantastic.in and a Techstars India Accelerator community.
Organizations, entrepreneurs, creators and change-makers, cultural and arts institutions, alumni networks, accelerator communities and groups that support them.
Geography
Dara.Network Inc. lists a Seattle, Washington address in the United States, while its founders and much of its community activity are based in Bangalore, India. The RadBots project spanned India, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Singapore, and platform communities span members in multiple countries.
History
Team affiliations on the platform date the Gooey.AI / Dara.network team to 2019, and the iOS app's published version history runs from at least October 2021 through February 2025. In 2021 the founders were associated with Techstars, and the company's India Accelerator community page references the Techstars Bangalore accelerator. In 2022 the company released the RadBots NFT videobot collection, and in October 2024 it began a Rockefeller Foundation grant term focused on AI resources for charitable organizations.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Founder mafia
3 people who came through Dara.network went on to found or lead other companies.
Related companies · 3
Companies working in the same space as Dara.network.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsThe Rockefeller Foundation granted Dara.Network Inc. $237,141 under its Innovation focus area, with a term from 31 October 2024 to 30 January 2026, for developing AI resources to help charitable organizations implement their work more effectively.
$237.1K source ↗
Dara.network launched RadBots, an NFT collection of conversational videobots created by playwrights, artists and screenwriters from India, Sri Lanka, the UK and Germany, combining authored screenplays with Dara.network's async video-chat platform; NFT drop events were held in May and June 2022.
Dara.network-affiliated team collaborated with Eames Demetrios on the Kcymaerxthaere project, including an online program for artistic collaborators and a community mural with augmented reality in Bangalore.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Dara.networkdara.network · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Dara.network do?
- Dara.network is an ad-free community platform offering channels, events and member directories for institutions and alumni networks.
- Who are Dara.network's investors?
- Dara.network's investors include Techstars.
- Where is Dara.network headquartered?
- Dara.network is headquartered in Bengaluru, IN.