Private Equity

PE Fund Investments

News aggregator app Dailyhunt raises $805-M at $5-B valuation

Economic Times  

Bengaluru-based VerSe Innovation, the parent company of Unicorn regional language news aggregator Dailyhunt and short video app Josh, has raised USD 805 million led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which invested USD 425 million as part of the “Series J” round. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Luxor Capital, Sumeru Ventures and existing investors Sofina and Baillie Gifford and others have also participated in the round that values VerSe at USD 5 Billion. The company was valued at USD 3 Billion during a USD 450 million Series I round in August last year. VerSe will use the new capital to deepen and broaden its artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data science capabilities. The company plans to expand offerings, improve monetization models and foray into Web 3.0 experiences, besides trying social commerce, live commerce and influencer-led commerce. VerSe's core business of DailyHunt - which is claimed to serve more than 350 million users monthly - clocked $127 million in revenue in FY22. The company said Josh has 150 million monthly active users with 49% of them being daily active users. Besides DailyHunt and Josh, VerSe Innovation also houses PublicVibe, which is a hyper-local video platform.

From the Venture Intelligence PE-VC Deal Database: Between Oct-2009 and Jan-2022, Dailyhunt had attracted over USD 800 M from investors including Kotak Investment Advisors, Catamaran Ventures, Bay Capital Investments, CPPIB, Trifecta Capital, Luxor Capital, Siguler Guff, IIFL VC, Qatar Investment Authority, Baillie Gifford, Sofina, Carlyle, CapitalG, Alpha Wave Global, B Capital Group, M12, Glade Brook Capital, Lupa Systems, Goldman Sachs, Sehgal Family Office, Arun Sarin Family and others. Early investors in the company - who have made partial / full exits - include Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India, Omidyar Network and Franklin Templeton PE. (Subscribers to the database can login to view the valuation, deal structuring and other transaction details.)