AAA Dailyhunt catches $100m

Dailyhunt catches $100m

Verse Innovation, the India-based parent company of news aggregator app Dailyhunt, has raised over $100m from investors including internet technology provider Google and diversified software producer Microsoft, the Economic Times reported yesterday.

Investment manager Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation subsidiary also participated in the round, as did investment firm Sofina Group and Lupa Systems, the investment vehicle for former media executive James Murdoch. The cash was secured at a valuation above $1bn.

Formerly known as Newshunt, Dailyhunt is a mobile app that aggregates personalised news and media content for a base of more than 300 million registered users.

Verse will use the funding to expand its short-form video app, Josh, grow its content creator network and enhance its artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. The round took its total funding to approximately $283m.

The company closed $58.6m in series G funding in May this year at a $512m pre-money valuation, when Lupa Systems offshoot Lupa India added $35m to funding from digital media group ByteDance, Falcon Edge, Goldman Sachs and Advent Capital Management.

Unnamed investors had provided $35m for Dailyhunt in March 2019, three years after it had raised $25m from Bytedance, Arun Sarin and existing investors Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network.

By Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.

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