Dailyhunt-owner VerSe Innovation reaches $5bn valuation with latest $805mn funding
What's the story
Bengaluru-based VerSe Innovation, the parent company of short-video platform Josh and news aggregator Dailyhunt, has raised $805 million at a valuation of $5 billion.
The funding round was spearheaded by an existing investor named Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) which contributed almost half of the fresh capital ($425 million).
The new capital will be used to improve user engagement and jump into commerce.
Context
Why does this story matter?
In August 2021, VerSe Innovation raised $450 million in funding and was valued at around $3 billion. An investment by Google and Microsoft took place soon after.
In the past year, the company has raised $1.5 billion, and now another significant fundraiser has taken place wherein CPPIB's investment is touted to be one of the largest in an Indian firm.
Funds
Dailyhunt clocked $127 million revenue in FY22
In the latest fundraiser, VerSe which came to life in 2007, raised capital not only from CPPIB but also from new investors such as Sumeru Ventures, Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund, and Luxor Capital.
Baillie Gifford and Sofina Group, both of which are existing backers, also took part in the initiative.
Notably, in FY22 the brand's core business Dailyhunt hit $127 million in revenue.
Stats
Josh caters to 150 million active monthly users
The short-video segment in India is highly competitive and new players are coming into prominence after several Chinese apps were banned in 2020.
These include YouTube Shorts, Moj, Instagram Reels, and MX TakaTak which are rivals of Josh.
Josh has 150 million monthly active users with 49% of them being active daily. Meanwhile, Dailyhunt serves an active monthly user base of over 350 million.
Aims
How will the funds be utilized?
The capital secured in the latest funding round will be used to improve the company's machine learning and artificial intelligence prowess so that user engagement and monetization can be bettered.
VerSe also aims to jump into commerce via various models (official entry will be announced very soon), create monetization models for short videos, and offer web3.0 experiences on its platform across various languages.