E-commerce firm Alibaba has begun discussions with India-based news aggregation app developer Dailyhunt over an investment at a $500m valuation, LiveMint reported, citing two people aware of the matter.
Originally known as Newshunt, Dailyhunt runs a mobile platform that functions both as a curated, personalised news aggregator and a self-publishing platform.
The app has been installed more than 155 million times and provides access to some 100,000 news articles each day.
Alibaba is looking to acquire a stake of between 10% and 12% in the company, according to one source. The other said the negotiations are open, and Dailyhunt could opt to raise funding from different investors.
The company disclosed $40m of funding from Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network across series A and B rounds in 2015.
The latter three subsequently joined China-headquartered mobile media company Bytedance and angel investor Arun Sarin for a $25m round in late 2016.
The prospective deal would follow Alibaba investments in other China-based companies including financial services provider Paytm, online grocer BigBasket and e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal.