Pratilipi, a India-based online self-publishing platform backed by media group Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), has received Rs 1.05bn ($15.1m) in funding, the Economic Times has reported.
Venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners led the round, investing alongside Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network India, Shunwei Capital, Contrarian Vriddhi Fund and WEH Ventures. It increased the company’s overall funding to more than $20m.
Founded in 2014, Pratilipi operates an online content platform with more than 100,000 users that forms a base for stories in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam and Kannada to be written, uploaded and shared.
Omidyar Network led a $4.3m series A round for Pratilipi in February 2018 that included BCC subsidiary Times Internet, Nexus Venture Partners, Contrarian Capital, Shunwei Capital, WEH Ventures and angel investor Atul Goel.
Times Internet had previously joined Nexus Venture Partners, Contrarian Capital Deepak Gupta, Amit Wadhwa and Amit Banka to provide $930,000 for the company in 2016.