In 2019, Z47 made their initial investment of INR 107 crore in Ola Electric. The AI startup Krutrim and the ride-hailing company Ola Cabs are also owned by the venture capital fund.
Z47 and Tiger Global’s Exit Strategy
In October of last year, ET revealed that Z47 is reducing its ownership of Ola, the fintech startup Razorpay, the business-to-business (B2B) commerce company OfBusiness, and the local language content platform Dailyhunt in order to generate $150–180 million. At the same time, Tiger Global Management reduced its ownership of Ola Electric from 3.45% three months before to the end of June 2025 to 3.24%.
Through its Internet Fund III, Tiger Global currently owns INR 585 crore in the EV manufacturer. In June, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation made INR 552 crore and INR 137 crore from the sale of about 10.88 crore and 2.7 crore shares, respectively.
Ola Electric’s Financials: Revenue Drop and Profit Focus
As sales suffered in the face of heightened competition in India’s E2W sector, Ola Electric’s operational revenue for the first quarter virtually halved compared to the same period last year, and its loss increased. For the quarter that ended on June 30, the company reported a net loss of INR 428 crore on revenue of INR 828 crore.
The net loss decreased to less than half from INR 870 crore in the January-March quarter, but it increased from INR 347 crore a year earlier. In the March quarter, it reported operating revenue of INR 611 crore. During an earnings call, Bhavish Aggarwal, the business’s founder and managing director, stated that the company has now shifted its focus to profitability.
What’s Next for India’s EV Giant?
According to Aggarwal, the company has shifted from a strategy of aggressive penetration to one of more balanced and profitable expansion. Following a period of hypergrowth, the industry is now consolidating and is expected to experience another upswing soon. It’s time to combine operations till then.
Nearly 350 workers were let go by VerSe Innovation, the company behind DailyHunt and Josh, as part of a larger “strategic” reorganisation effort. A corporate representative said in a statement that the layoffs were due to “workforce realignment” in order to focus on long-term goals and growth, streamline operations, and accelerate investments in AI.
The representative went on to say that the company will reduce its personnel by about 350 positions this month in order to create a more future-ready organisation where resources are allocated to growth areas and talent is cross-leveraged across business divisions.
Company to Focus on Automation Now
VerSe stated that in order to improve operational efficiency and create a “more future-ready organisation”, it will now concentrate on automating a number of “manual processes”. According to the spokesman, VerSe Innovation has been going through a strategic transition to become a more focused, flexible, and future-ready company.
This strategic shift, which is a component of a well-thought-out overall plan, aims to accelerate AI investments, streamline operations, and take coordinated steps to match the organisation’s structure and strategy with its long-term goals and expansion.
With aspirations for a future listing on the bourses, the unicorn has also set its sights on increasing its revenue “organically” and through smart acquisitions. “A focus on growth drivers and operational and structural efficiencies are actions directed to make the company profitable by the end of this fiscal year,” the representative continued.
VerSe Going Through Financial Instability
VerSe stated that by cutting back on marketing and service costs, it was able to cut its EBITDA burn by 51%, from INR 1,448 Cr in FY23 to INR 710 Cr in FY24. The entire income for FY24 was INR 1,261 Cr, it noted.
However, the corporation have been at odds over VerSe’s FY24 financials. A media house reported last month that in its audit report for FY24, auditor Deloitte identified flaws in the Josh parent company’s internal financial controls, including problems with revenue recognition, handling of virtual assets, supplier selection, expense provision, and IT systems control.
Umang Bedi, the CEO and cofounder of VerSe, acknowledged that the company’s controls were inadequate but assured a media outlet that the financials were accurate and fair with a clean report. Despite this, VerSe anticipates a YoY increase in sales of over 75% in FY25 due to investments in AI-led platforms, including subscription service Magzter and adtech platform NexVerse.ai.
In FY24, VerSe’s net loss decreased by over 56% to INR 814.8 Cr from INR 1,878.4 Cr in the previous year. In the meantime, the company’s operational revenue decreased by 8.8% from INR 1,046.8 Cr in FY23 to INR 954.7 Cr in the fiscal year under review. Notably, VerSe Innovation has previously let go of staff members.
The company laid off about 150 workers in November 2022, a few months after financing an enormous $805 million round.
Umang Bedi, a cofounder of VerSe Innovation, informed a media outlet that the company’s financials are accurate and fair, and the report is clean. Although Deloitte found that the company’s controls were inadequate, it has been established that these shortcomings do not affect the consolidated financial statements of the business.
VerSe Innovation, the parent company of DailyHunt and Josh, is situated in Bengaluru. In its audit report for the fiscal year that ended in March 2024 (FY24), Deloitte found flaws in its internal financial controls.
Numerous weaknesses in VerSe Innovation’s internal procedures, such as supplier selection, expense provision, revenue recognition, virtual asset handling, and IT systems control, were brought to light by the audit. It is noteworthy that the company’s operational revenue for FY24 decreased 8.8% from INR 1,046.8 Cr to INR 954.7 Cr.
During the same year, their net loss decreased by over 56% to INR 814.8 Cr from INR 1,878.4 Cr in FY23. Additionally, according to Bedi, the loss was cut in half in FY25. (FY25 assertions from Dailyhunt will be discussed later.)
What Deloitte’s Findings State?
Deloitte, VerSe Innovation’s auditor, claimed in its report that the business lacked adequate controls over vendor selection, purchase order approval, and payment processing. Deloitte claims that this may result in overpayments, incorrect payments, or even fraud.
For example, one vendor provided specific invoice numbers associated with INR 35 Cr when the auditor requested confirmation of all outstanding payments as of March 31, 2024. VerSe Innovation discovered, however, that it had never received the aforementioned bills when it examined its internal records. VerSe Innovation claims that the invoice numbers seemed to be from FY22 rather than the fiscal year that was being examined.
This was not an isolated problem. The company’s controls over the purchase, sale, and management of virtual assets were deemed inadequate by the auditor. This raised the possibility of asset theft or even revenue misreporting.
Notably, the business runs and maintains mobile platforms that allow users to engage with live streamers in real time and view live-streamed material from the streamers. Such content is sold under the category of virtual assets.
Additionally, the auditor stated that VerSe’s approach to documenting all costs before the end of the fiscal year was inadequate, potentially leading to inaccuracies in the costs that were reported.
VerSe Innovation’s controls for capturing advertising revenues were deemed ineffective by Deloitte. Some campaigns ran the danger of inaccurate revenue reporting because they were not adequately documented with client permissions.
Playing with the Rules
The auditor added that VerSe Innovation had trouble appropriately implementing revenue recognition rules under Indian accounting standards. It is because of the complexity of its company, which included serving as an aggregator across numerous partners, publishers, and ad platforms.
In addition to the news aggregator Dailyhunt and the short video platform, VerSe Innovation also runs Valueleaf, a digital marketing solutions company, and Magzter, a news subscription platform.
VerSe Innovation acknowledged the problems the auditor had found and stated that it was strengthening internal controls through IT access policies, process workshops, and new documentation frameworks.
The internet is exploding with essential subjects and news items every day. It’s challenging to stay on top of everything going on in the world. Finding sources that don’t exaggerate and present only the facts is also challenging. News aggregators can help in this situation. News aggregators gather information from all across the internet and provide it in one convenient area for visitors. The RSS feeds are used to build the themes, which are based on various keywords. Let’s take a look at the Top 50 news aggregators for the year 2025.
Feedly is one of the top content aggregators when it comes to news content aggregation. Feedly offers a variety of appealing and configurable layouts in a primary, minimalist interface that makes it simple to view the news and headlines you want to read at a glance.
Inshorts
News Aggregator
Inshorts
Founded
2013
Headquarters
Noida, India
Inshorts – Best News Aggregator Websites
Because of its unique approach to providing news, Inshorts, an Indian start-up, rapidly catches up with other prominent news aggregators.
It has a “MyFeed” option that displays news tailored to your tastes. The app’s interface displays 60 keywords on a topic, with a swipe left revealing the complete article.
Google News
News Aggregator
Google News
Founded
2001
Headquarters
Mountain View, California
Google News – Best News Aggregator Websites
Google News, one of the most potent information & News aggregators on the web, can assist you with your content aggregation at any moment. It provides highly customized news depending on the user’s location, interests, and online browsers from hundreds of sources.
Alltop
News Aggregator
Alltop
Founded
2008
Headquarters
Scottsdale, Arizona
Alltop – Best News Aggregator Websites
Alltop is a news aggregator that covers news, technology, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and business, among other topics. Each category contains information from well-known websites in that field. You may discover handpicked material here that is shown according to your preferences.
Techmeme
News Aggregator
Techmeme
Founded
2005
Headquarters
Volcano, California
Techmeme – Top News Aggregator Sites
Techmeme is a news aggregator that pulls material from major news outlets worldwide, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
This is a content aggregator for news sites that helps aggregate the most recent and even the funniest stories from around the world.
The Vancouver Sun
News Aggregator
The Vancouver Sun
Founded
1912
Headquarters
British Columbia, Canada
The Vancouver Sun – Best News Aggregator Sites
The Vancouver Sun is the go-to source for breaking news, video, breaking headlines, and photos of the day’s top stories in Vancouver.
The Sun’s newsroom is the largest of any newspaper in Western Canada. Except for Sundays and some holidays, the web version publishes daily news stories.
Fark
News Aggregator
Fark
Founded
1999
Headquarters
Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Fark – Best News Aggregator Sites
Fark is a content aggregator that gathers news from various sources, including politics, sports, business, and entertainment. It has a large following and is considered one of the finest news aggregator websites.
It employs a somewhat different aggregation approach, in which users may contribute their links and give them a distinctive title. Fark’s content staff then chooses which ones to publish on the top page.
Flipboard
News Aggregator
Flipboard
Founded
2010
Headquarters
Palo Alto, California, United States
Flipboard – Best News Aggregator Websites
One of the more appealing candidates on our news aggregator list. Flipboard provides customers with a daily magazine that is fully customized to their interests. Provide it with a selection of themes, and it will locate articles that match your preferences. Flipboard has you covered if you want to read like you’re reading your morning papers every day.
The Washington Times
News Aggregator
The Washington Times
Founded
1982
Headquarters
Washington, D.C
Top News Aggregator Sites – The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a well-known daily news source that covers the most important stories throughout the country. The Washington Times is known for its in-depth political reporting and investigative reporting. This news aggregator website provides up-to-the-minute information and analysis on topics that influence the future.
Smart News
News Aggregator
Smart News
Founded
2012
Headquarters
Tokyo, Japan
Best News Aggregator Websites – Smart News
The UI of Smart News is tabbed. Users can choose their country on SN. This feature makes it one of the best news aggregators. Once you’ve selected a nation, it’ll show you what’s hot and what’s new in your city and country.
Dailyhunt
News Aggregator
Dailyhunt
Founded
2007
Headquarters
Bangalore, India
Dailyhunt – Best News Aggregator Sites
Dailyhunt is a Bangalore-based news and information aggregation website that produces and collects news in 14 languages. DailyHunt provides users with the most up-to-date news and entertains them by allowing them to view trending videos.
The Week
News Aggregator
The Week
Founded
1982
Headquarters
New York, United States
The Week – Best News Aggregator Site
The Week is an IRL weekly magazine that gathers and summarizes news from worldwide, but its companion app can rapidly catch you up. The app’s daily briefing page provides you with “10 things you need to know today” every day if you like lists.
The Week is best seen on a desktop computer, but if you’re usually on your phone, it’ll suffice.
Yahoo News
News Aggregator
Yahoo News
Founded
1994
Headquarters
Sunnyvale, California
Yahoo News – Best News Aggregator Site
Yep. Yahoo is still around. Yahoo News is still going strong, with a comprehensive collection of content from major news organizations. It’s recognized for breaking news and live events in particular.
The News Break app aims to localize news based on cities and metropolitan regions that you care about, rather than to present top items for a national audience. You can change how many alerts News Break sends you, but even the lowest option may feel like a constant onslaught of information.
Ground News
News Aggregator
Ground News
Founded
2017
Headquarters
Ontario, Canada
Ground News – Best News Aggregator Website
You could be over-informed with news from worldwide and more than 50,000 sources all in one location. Ground News offers a variety of news products, such as an app, a website, a browser plugin, a newsletter, and other news comparison tools.
CNN News is one of the most well-known names in online news and information, aiming to enlighten, empower, and engage the globe with breaking news stories.
It provides information and services in technology, lifestyle, weather, politics, and more to enrich people’s lives.
The New York Times
News Aggregator
The New York Times
Founded
1851
Headquarters
New York, United States
The New York Times – Best News Aggregator Site
The New York Times, sometimes known as The Times, is a well-known American newspaper with a global audience and impact. In 1996, they began publishing daily news on the internet to reach a wider audience. Providing readers with quick access to the majority of their daily newspaper’s content from anywhere in the United States.
USA TODAY
News Aggregator
USA Today
Founded
1982
Headquarters
Virginia, USA
USA Today – Best News Aggregator Website
USA TODAY is a well-known news and information website that provides readers with breaking news on sports, weather, travel, money, life, and technology, updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
They may leave comments on articles, share them with their friends, and find additional readers.
NBC News
News Aggregator
NBC News
Founded
1940
Headquarters
New York, United States
NBC News – Best News Aggregator Website
NBC News is the web-based part of NBC News, and NBC Universal owns it. It includes segments from NBC programs, including NBC Nightly News, Today, and Dateline. All current headlines are covered by NBC, the MSNBC cable channel, and wire and original reporting.
With only one click, users may choose their favorite topics for headline delivery.
Apple News
News Aggregator
Apple News
Founded
2015
Headquarters
California, United States
Best News Aggregator Website – Apple News
If you’re using iOS, it’s challenging to ignore Apple News. It’s a newsfeed with a clean, image-forward structure that’s completely optimized for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, much like Flipboard.
With its simplified search feature, you may either read complete digital copies of popular journals, newspapers, and other publications or customize your feed of chosen, optimized articles on your favorite themes.
The Huffington Post
News Aggregator
The Huffington Post
Founded
2005
Headquarters
New York, United States
Best News Aggregator Site – Huffington Post
The Huffington Post, formerly known as HuffPost, is a famous American news aggregator and website offering worldwide and national editions of the daily news feed. They created an online network platform that published information directly on the website and user-generated content such as audio blogging, video, and photos.
ABC Australia (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
News Aggregator
ABC Australia
Founded
1932
Headquarters
Ultimo, Australia
ABC – Best News Aggregator Site
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Current and News Affairs branch produces ABC News, a local news service in Australia.
The website is one of Australia’s most reliable sources of local, national, and international news. ABC News offers unbiased, comprehensive, and in-depth coverage of business, sports, weather, technology, and other topics.
Microsoft News
News Aggregator
Microsoft News
Founded
2021
Headquarters
Washington, United States
Microsoft News – Best News Aggregator Site
The news aggregation software from Microsoft features a tabbed layout. You may set it up to display news from 20 different nations’ news websites.
SBS Australia
News Aggregator
SBS Australia
Founded
1978
Headquarters
New South Wales, Australia
SBS – Best News Aggregator Site
The Special Broadcasting Service, or SBS, is a public internet broadcasting network with a mixed funding model. SBS’s digital purpose is to deliver multicultural and multilingual services to all Australians.
Crikey
News Aggregator
Crikey
Founded
2000
Headquarters
Australasia, Australia
Crikey – Best News Aggregator Website
Crikey is a popular digital news and commentary site that has been around for over 20 years. In journalism, the website attempts to present a balanced mix of opinion and analysis. Crikey provides distinct viewpoints on politics, the media, business, society, and more.
Wired UK
News Aggregator
Wired UK
Founded
2009
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Top News Aggregator Website – Wired
The Wired UK is an online news outlet that covers the impact of science and technology. Economic, architecture, design, culture, philosophy, and politics are just a few themes covered. The Wired UK is a London-based spin-off of the original American Wired.
The Guardian
News Aggregator
The Guardian
Founded
1907
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Top News Aggregator Site – The Guardian
The Guardian is an influential daily newspaper based in London that is widely regarded as one of the most important newspapers in the United Kingdom, with a global, progressive readership.
The website is one of the world’s largest English-language quality news websites. It is a prominent liberal voice that delivers the most up-to-date news on sports, business, opinions, and reviews from throughout the country.
National Post
News Aggregator
National Post
Founded
1998
Headquarters
Toronto, Canada
Best News Aggregator Site – National Post
The National Post is one of Canada’s most well-known news organisations on the internet. The National Post provides you with first-hand information on business and financial news.
The newspaper consolidated daily weekday editions in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta, focusing even more on its online publication.
Channel 4
News Aggregator
Channel 4
Founded
1982
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Best News Aggregator Site – Channel 4
Channel 4 is a commercially financed public service news broadcasting website headquartered in the United Kingdom that aims to provide high-quality, creative material that challenges the status quo.
Its website is dedicated to inspirational and innovatively created stories in politics, journalism, technology, business, and other sectors.
The Irish Times
News Aggregator
The Irish Times
Founded
1859
Headquarters
Dublin, Ireland
Best News Aggregator Site – The Irish Times
The Irish Times is a well-known daily newspaper published in Ireland. It includes news from all around Ireland and updates from sports, business, the arts, and real estate.
User-generated material, comments at the end of articles, and social network postings are all ways for readers to get involved on the website.
They may also voice their opinions by calling The Irish Times and leaving a voicemail.
The Age News
News Aggregator
The Age News
Founded
1854
Headquarters
Melbourne, Australia
Best News Aggregator Site – The Age
The Age is a Melbourne-based Australian daily newspaper. Their website is widely regarded as having some of the best news coverage in the country, covering both local and national news. Among the available news items, readers will find sections on lifestyle, culture, education, the environment, and more.
The Brisbane Times
News Aggregator
The Brisbane Times
Founded
2007
Headquarters
Queensland, Australia
Best News Aggregator Site – Brisbane Times
The Brisbane Times is a daily online website that focuses on sports, lifestyles, entertainment, technology, business, and travel. This news website provides top articles and breaking news, updated throughout the day as new information becomes available.
The Brisbane Times is regarded as Queensland’s most important news source.
The Bolton News
News Aggregator
The Bolton News
Founded
1867
Headquarters
Bolton, United Kingdom
The Bolton News – Best News Aggregator Site
The Bolton News is a news website that covers northern England’s towns. For six days a week, the website provides new material every morning.
It provides news, sports, business, entertainment, education, health, and information to Bolton, Horwich, Farnworth, and Westhoughton, with frequent updates.
The Northern Star
News Aggregator
The Northern Star
Founded
1876
Headquarters
New South Wales, Australia
The Northern Star – Best News Aggregator Site
The Northern Star is the most well-known news organisation in northern Australia. It diverts the reader’s attention away from the story by telling it in the language of the locals. Their feeds include daily parts such as Weekender Lifestyle, Rural Weekly, Better Business, and the best of local arts, among others.
The Telegraph
News Aggregator
The Telegraph
Founded
1982
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
The Telegraph – Best News Aggregator Site
The Daily Telegraph, often known as The Telegraph online, is a national broadsheet daily newspaper published by Telegraph Media Group in London, distributed both domestically and globally.
Telegraph.co.uk is the online version of the Daily Telegraph, which incorporates stories from the print and media versions and web-only material, including photo galleries, breaking news, features, and blogs.
The Diplomat
News Aggregator
The Diplomat
Founded
2001
Headquarters
Washington D.C
Top News Aggregator Website
The Diplomat is an online news and information source for the Asia-Pacific area, offering news and information on politics, technology, security, business, and daily living.
The website is committed to delivering high-quality commentary and analysis on current events in Asia and worldwide. Expert coverage on geopolitical trends, the environment, human security and development, pop culture, the arts, and more are provided by The Diplomat.
Way2News
News Aggregator
Way2News
Founded
2015
Headquarters
Hyderabad, India
Top News Aggregator Website
Way2News is a hyper-local brief news mobile application established in Hyderabad and backed by Way2Online Interactive Private Limited.
With many user-friendly features and exciting content, the app offers tailored news in a short-summarised, magazine-style flip format in sports, Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, and others.
Asian Correspondent
News Aggregator
Asian Correspondent
Founded
2009
Headquarters
Bristol
Asian Correspondent – Top News Aggregator Website
Asian Correspondent is an English-language news website run by a hybrid media business that aggregates information from professional bloggers, journalists, and news wires into one place.
Politics, journalism, education, entertainment, technology, and travel are just a few of the topics covered on the website.
East Asia Forum
News Aggregator
East Asia Forum
Founded
2009
Headquarters
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
East Asia Forum – Best News Aggregator Website
East Asia Forum is an online forum that focuses on Asia Pacific business, politics, economics, law, and international relations.
East Asia Forum publishes a weekly lead piece on Sunday evening, and a Digest with updated news feeds emailed to subscribers every Monday morning.
Channel News Asia
News Aggregator
Channel News Asia
Founded
1999
Headquarters
Queenstown, Singapore
CNA – Best News Aggregator Site
CNA is a Singapore-based English-language news channel.
It transmits news in its own country and has an Asia-wide internet subscription network. Business, technology, sport, health, and lifestyle are among the topics covered on the site, covering breaking news and top stories domestically and globally.
It also offers live news streaming on its website.
The Toronto Star
News Aggregator
The Toronto Star
Founded
1892
Headquarters
Toronto, Canada
Toronto Star – Best News Aggregator Site
The Toronto Star has long been the country’s most widely circulated daily newspaper.
The website keeps its readers up to date on Canadian entertainment, sports, business news, and more. It has grown to become Canada’s largest daily newspaper, with the country’s most significant circulation.
Global News
News Aggregator
Global News
Founded
1994
Headquarters
Vancouver, British Columbia
Global News – Best News Aggregator Website
Global News is a news and information website based in Canada. It features breaking news and current headlines from throughout the country and national weather predictions, local news videos, financial news, and sports statistics.
Metro News Canada
News Aggregator
Metro News Canada
Founded
1999
Headquarters
Luxembourg
Metro – Best News Aggregator Website
Metro News is Canada’s first national daily newspaper to be published in two official languages and one of the country’s most popular complimentary daily newspapers.
It covers everything from the newest celebrity news to the strangest tales from across the world, all without taking a political stance.
CBC News
News Aggregator
CBC News
Founded
1941
Headquarters
Toronto, Canada
CBC News – Best News Aggregator Website
CBC News covers local, regional, and national news from around Canada. It adheres to journalistic standards, which offer a content structure that fulfils the audience’s expectations.
The CBC News website keeps Canadians and visitors from around the world up to date on what’s going on in their communities, their countries, and the world.
The Retail News
News Aggregator
The Retail News
Founded
1999
Headquarters
Hong Kong, China
The Retail News – Best News Aggregator Website
The Latest Retail Headlines Asia is an online news source that offers market analysis on current retail news from throughout Asia. It is dedicated to providing global and local merchants with the most up-to-date retail news from throughout the Asian retail sector daily.
Their tools are available to everyone, from small enterprises to big corporations looking to develop in the Asian market.
TASS
News Aggregator
Tass
Founded
1904
Headquarters
Moscow, Russia
Tass – Best News Aggregator Site
TASS is a primary Russian official news service that specialises in national news reporting.
It includes stories on national news, international news headlines, political news, arts and entertainment, and sports statistics for viewers worldwide.
The Asian Age
News Aggregator
The Asian Age
Founded
1994
Headquarters
New Delhi, India
The Asian Age- Best News Aggregator Site
The Asian Age was India’s first global newspaper, with editions in Mumbai, Delhi, and London, explicitly focusing on foreign news.
The newspaper’s online edition offers a great combination of national and international news, appealing to a wide range of readers. The Asian Age maintains its eyes and ears open for all news events locally, nationally, and globally.
Panda
News Aggregator
Panda
Founded
2014
Headquarters
Istanbul, Turkey
Panda – Best News Aggregator Website
Panda is a popular, clean news aggregator tailored for tech entrepreneurs, developers, and web designers. It offers a smart grid of around 30 tech feeds by default, with the option to add more. Free to users, Panda generates revenue through sponsored ads.
Pocket
News Aggregator
Pocket
Founded
2007
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Pocket – Best News Aggregator Website
Pocket is a news app where you can find popular content from the internet. You can also save your favorite articles, videos, and stories to read later.
Pocket has many content categories like trending, tech, finance, and health, making it easy to browse. It works as a mobile app and a browser extension, so you can save content anytime.
Why Use Pocket? It helps you quickly save and organize content, creating your own personal reading library.
Inoreader
News Aggregator
Inoreader
Founded
2013
Headquarters
Bulgaria
Inoreader – Best News Aggregator Site
Inoreader is a great alternative to Feedly and a powerful feed reader. It works on the web, iOS, and Android, allowing you to add your favorite websites or discover new blogs.
We liked that Inoreader offers many ways to organize and display content with different layouts and colors. If you already use a news reader, you can easily import your subscriptions. You can also group subscriptions into bundles and topics as your reading list grows.
Besides following news from websites, you can track brands, companies, and trends. It even lets you see social media updates from platforms like Facebook, Reddit, Mastodon, and Telegram.
It helps you create personalized news feeds, follow brands, and stay updated on the latest trends.
FAQs
How do news aggregators work?
News Aggregators assemble news from a variety of sources and arrange them in one place in a specific manner.
Which news aggregator is best?
The best News aggregators are:
Feedly
Inshorts
Google News
Alltop
Techmeme
The Vancouver Sun
Fark
Poket News
Flipboard
The Washington Times
Is news aggregator legal in India?
Yes, Content and News Aggregators are legal in India. The Information Technology Act and Intellectual property laws govern it.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.
We no longer have to wait for the newspapers to get the latest news, nor do we have to wait till we reach home and switch on the TV to know the breaking news. With mobile phones, fast and cheap internet services, and online news aggregators accessing news, the latest information and updates are now a breeze. However, getting local news updates every day in regional languages was still far from reality in India until 2010, when Dailyhunt was founded.
The Indian content and news aggregating app, founded in 2009, is a platform that delivers local news from all corners of the country to the Indian masses in their regional languages. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Dailyhunt aggregates and presents news and daily local language content in 14+ regional languages “that informs, enriches, and entertains” Indian audiences.
Initially started as Newshunt by Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni in 2009, the Symbian-turned-Android application was acquired by Virendra Gupta in 2011. It was Viru who renamed the application to Dailyhunt, the name it is now known as, in 2015. Today Dailyhunt procures content from over 1000 publishers and is gaining much popularity due to its Indian regional language content
Dailyhunt turned into India’s first tech unicorn focused on local languages on December 21, 2020, after its parent organization, VerSe Innovation, received funding of over $100 million led by Google, Microsoft, and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation.
Find 650+ newspapers and channels in a single app in your own language – Dailyhunt
StartupTalky covers the success story of Dailyhunt in this post. Know all about Dailhunt, how the platform works, its business model, revenue model, funding, founder/owner, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
Dailyhunt – Industry | The Media and Entertainment Sector in India
According to the PwC report, India’s Media and Entertainment sector is fairly expected to touch $45.1 billion by 2021, expanding at a CAGR of over 10.5%. The report also states that the segment has undergone substantial progress since 2016, when its valuation stood at $27.3 billion.
Dailyhunt – About and How it Works
Dailyhunt is an Indian local news and content aggregator app that provides local language content in 14 Indian languages, which include major languages like Hindi, Kannada, and Marathi, to name a few, from over 3000+ content providers as of 2021.
It is one of the early entrants in the regional content space in the country. The interesting part is that the platform also offers short videos. This video content is sourced from organizations and stringers. Through its smart technology, the platform personalizes the content as per the users’ requirements.
From the nation’s biggest news source to hyperlocal correspondents, it curates news that you will surely love to watch. Almost 90% of the users use the platform in regional languages. It serves more than 350 million users a month, as per the reports for 2022. The unique proposition is that the users can browse the topics of their interest and also share news over different social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, etc.
Dailyhunt Login
Dailyhunt login is not difficult. The login process for the Dailyhunt app is really easy because the local news aggregating platform appears as a website that is designed as a news portal for vernacular news. To login to the same, you simply need to go to www.direct.dailyhunt.in/log in, if you are using a browser or open the Dailyhunt app, create your username and password, and log in through the same credentials to enjoy your news updates right from the comfort of your home.
Dailyhunt – Founders and Team
Virendra Gupta is the founder and CEO of Dailyhunt; Umang Bedi is the co-founder; and Shailendra Sharma is the co-founder and SVP of Dailyhunt.
Virendra Gupta, Umang Bedi and Shailendra Sharma (L to R)
Virendra Gupta
Virendra Gupta has a B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication from Jodhpur’s MBM Engineering College, after which he completed a Master’s in Management from IIT Mumbai School of Management. Gupta started his career with OnMobile, where he was in marketing and alliances. After his brief stint with OnMobile, Virendra moved on to work with other companies, including Bharti Cellular and Trilogy, where he served in various key leadership positions. Virendra Gupta eventually founded Verse, a value-added service company, in 2007, which led him to acquire Newshunt (now Dailyhunt) in 2011, thereby becoming the founder and CEO of both companies.
Umang Bedi
Now known as the co-founder of Dailyhunt, Umang Bedi was a Pune University student from whom he completed a B.E. in electronics. He then pursued a general management program at Harvard Business School. Starting his career as the Managing Director of Intuit Inc., Umang has served as the Managing Director of a couple of other notable companies too, which include Adobe and Facebook, before being appointed as the President of Dailyhunt in 2018. Bedi was elevated to the designation of co-founder in 2020. Umang is also the Statutory Board Member of Goals 101.
Shailendra Sharma
Shailendra Sharma is the SVP of Engineering at Dailyhunt. Starting as a software trainee at Tata Research and Development Center, Sharma went on to work with Persistent Systems and Trilogy before co-founding DailyHunt with the other co-founders. Sharma is also regarded as the founder of 360fy Technologies. Shailendra Sharma is also a Pune University alumnus, from which he completed an MCA in Computer Science.
Virendra Gupta had initially started the Daily Hunt. Later, he roped in Umang Bedi and Shailendra Sharma to make the platform available to a larger audience.
Dailyhunt has an employee strength of between 501 and 1,000 employees.
Dailyhunt – Startup Story | How was Dailyhunt Started?
Dailyhunt, earlier known as Newshunt, was initially started by two ex-Nokia employees, Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni. It was created as a Symbian app in 2009. However, later in 2011, Newshunt was acquired by Virendra Gupta, who was then the founder of VerSe Innovation. He had started his venture, Versé Innovation Pvt Ltd., as a value-added service (VAS) company that provides SMS alerts on jobs, matrimony, property, news, and education to subscribers from around the country. In 2015, he renamed NewsHunt aailyHunt.
Dailyhunt – Name and Logo
The name Dailyhunt was chosen because the app allows users to get daily news when searching determinedly.
Dailyhunt Logo
Dailyhunt – Business Model and Revenue Model
Being a news aggregating app is common, but Dailyhunt, most importantly, is a vernacular news aggregating app. There is a difference. In contrast to the other traditional news platforms, which target the top 10–15% of internet users, Dailyhunt targets the remaining percentage of the audience with its local language contents.
Dailyhunt is free for users who want to read the news and other relevant content from the app. It generates revenue from:
Impressions-Based (News): tie-ups with large news media and publishing houses wherein Dailyhunt shares the advertising revenue on the news screens with these players.
Transactions-Based (Books, Magazines, and Singles): tie-ups with book and magazine publishers, wherein the platform acts as a distributor for these books, collects the revenue from the users, and shares it with the publishers, who in turn may share it with the authors.
In-App Advertisements: Dailyhunt also earns from the advertisements of the companies and startups that feature on the app.
Dailyhunt – Funding and Investors
Dailyhunt has witnessed more than $430 million in funding over 14+ funding rounds from a range of investors, including Qatar Investment, Falcon Edge, Google, Microsoft, ByteDance, Goldman Sachs, and others.
Dailyhunt and JJosh’s parent, Verse Innovation, raised a relatively large funding round on April 6, 2022, which infused $805 million into the company, led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), where CPP alone put $425 million worth of funds. As of the reports for 2022, the Daily Hunt parent is valued at around $5 billion.
Date
Stage
Amount
Lead Investors
February 2021
Series H
$100 million
Qatar Investment Authority and others
December 2020
Series H
$100 million
Google, Microsoft and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation
Bytedance has reportedly exited Dailyhunt parent VerSe Innovation’s cap table at a discount of 56% as of June 4, 2022. The exit of the Chinese investor was confirmed earlier in June 2022 by VerSe. With the exit of the Tiktok owner, Bytedance, VerSe Innovation has now proclaimed that they are one of the few unicorn companies in India with 0% Chinese holding.
Bytedance has reportedly sold its stake in VerSe with the help of a secondary deal to existing investors, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
Dailyhunt – Growth
In July 2018, Dailyhunt added over 12 million net new monthly active users, and in August, it beat the previous month’s performance with the addition of 15 million new monthly active users. Total monthly users on all platforms (Dailyhunt and OneIndia) put together, when reported in September 2018, were 138 million+, of which Dailyhunt accounted for 100 million+. Moreover, the time spent per daily active user is over 27 minutes per person per day, as reported at the end of 2018.
Dailyhunt has grown to serve over 350 million users every month, and its short video platform, Josh, claims to grow its monthly active users (MAUs) to 139 million and its daily active users (DAUs) to 68 million as of January 20, 2022. The Verse Innovation news aggregating platform Dailyhunt has turned out to be one of the leading news-providing platforms and has grown 8X bigger than its nearest rival, InShorts.
Why are losses piling up?
Dailyhunt attained unicorn status after the Google-led fundraising round in December 2020, and the Indian content and news aggregator platform is aiming to scale new horizons with the Chinese apps not yet to be unbanned anytime soon.
The Indian content and news aggregator platform has reportedly increased its operating revenue in FY20, where its total collections amounted to Rs 310 crore, which improved by 95% from Rs 159.1 crore in FY19. However, the company has simultaneously witnessed a surge in its total expenditure, which included:
Advertisement and promotional expenditure: This rose by 74% from Rs 214.6 crore in FY19 to Rs 373 crore in FY20.
Commissions to selling agents: The company distributed commissions amounting to Rs 8.4 crore to their selling agents.
Expenditure on employee benefits: This witnessed a rise of 36%, from Rs 114 crore in FY19 to Rs 155.2 crore in FY20.
Training and recruiting expenses: additional amount of Rs 3 crore
Miscellaneous expenses: This surged 54.4%, from Rs 81.6 crore in FY20 to Rs 126 crore in FY21.
Legal and professional costs: Dailyhunt has to bear Rs 16.7 crore in the name of legal and other professional costs.
Going by the income-expenses of the company, Dailyhunt had to spend Rs 2.7 to earn a single rupee, which is a slight improvement from Rs 3 spent to gain Re 1, which the company exhibited at the end of the past financial year. The main reason for the losses that Dailyhunt is picking up is the rising costs of the company, which need to be curbed in the future. These expenses would continue to grow even in FY21 and FY22 due to Josh, the short-form video app launched by Dailyhunt, according to the experts. The reasons for the upcoming expenditures are mainly associated with the promotion and seamless integration of Josh, which is facing huge market competition from ShareChat’s Moj, InMobi-owned Glance’s Roposo, and MX’s Takatak.
Financials
The parent business of Dailyhunt and Josh, VerSe Innovation, made a significant financial achievement in the fiscal year 2022-2023 (FY 2022-2023). From Rs. 1,151 crore in FY22, its total income increased by 57% year over year to reach Rs. 1,809 crore in FY23. With an additional Rs 352 crore coming from non-operating operations, the company’s operating revenue increased by 51% to Rs 1,457 crore, showing another notable increase for the industry.
Expenses Breakdown
Dailyhunt total expenses rise from Rs 3,714 crore in FY22 to Rs 3,716 crore in FY23.
Below is the expense breakdown:
Expenses breakdown
FY22
FY23
Cost of service
Rs 1,411.32 crore
Rs 1672.20 crore
Business promotion
Rs 1262.76 crore
Rs 1,003.32 crore
Employee benefits
Rs 742.8 crore
Rs 817.52 crore
Others
Rs 297.1 crore
Rs 223 crore
EBITDA
According to the company, Dailyhunt recorded more than Rs 1,200 crore in revenue and had an EBITDA margin of 10% at the end of FY23.
Dailyhunt – Products and Services
Newzly
A news-in-brief app for Android users called Newzly was introduced by Dailyhunt in January 2018. With material available in nine languages (English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, and Gujarati), the app’s initial release gives a summary of hot news stories across a variety of genres, including regional, international, entertainment, business, sports, and technology.
Josh
Dailyhunt has launched the short video app Josh in 2020. Josh is Dailyhunt’s homage to Bharat, praising its artistic beauty and diversity, according to Dailyhunt, which said it had gained amazing traction during the beta period.
Publicvibe
With the release of Publicvibe, a new app from Dailyhunt that solely offers hyperlocal video updates on crime, politics, social concerns, and local events, video has been elevated to a new level.
Dailyhunt – Partnership
Some of the prominent partnerships of Dailyhunt are:
Twitter
Twitter collaborated with Dailyhunt to bring Moments to the Indian vernacular news and content aggregating app, as per the reports on February 8, 2021. Dailyhunt currently has a dedicated section called “Twitter Moments,” where users can find curated tweets containing news and other events.
Mzzalo
In December 2020, Dailyhunt announced its partnership with Mzaalo. This will allow Dailyhunt users to get access to Mzaalo’s content and also earn a reward point. These points can later be redeemed to purchase products or services from brands in the Mzaalo app.
Mathrubhumi
Dailyhunt partnered with Mathrubhumi in January 2023. According to Dailyhunt, its users will now be able to read a wide range of content on the platform, including investigative stories, informational stories, entertainment news, and political stories. The partnership will also help Mathrubhumi by allowing it to showcase its content to a sizable portion of Dailyhunt’s readers while also providing its devoted readership with digital support.
Research and Ranking
The Daily Hunt and Research & Ranking have joined forces in January 2023. By raising awareness of wealth development and financial planning, the cooperation, according to the corporation, wants to expand its reach throughout India.
Hindu Group
The Hindu Group, India’s most reputable media organization, and Dailyhunt have partnered on February 16, 2023, to offer users even easier access to a wealth of in-depth information.
Dailyhunt – Investment
Dailyhunt has invested in one company to date:
Company Name
Date
Amount
Funding Round
OneIndia
July 18, 2016
–
Jul 18, 2016
Dailyhunt – Mergers & Acquisitions
Dailyhunt’s parent organization, VerSe Innovation,acquired India-based Vebbler, a community-focused application for sharing photos and videos, on March 10, 2021.
In June 2019, the startup acquired hyperlocal video content and news content application LocalPlay, which will help the site stream video content in smaller towns. This deal will also enable local businessmen to advertise on the platform to target consumers in their area.
In July 2015, Dailyhunt acquired Buyt.In, a search engine that enables its users to discover, compare, and purchase products from a range of e-commerce portals.
The most prominent acquisitions of Dailyhunt are listed as:
Acquiree Name
Acquired Date
Price
Vebbler
March 10, 2021
–
Cognirel
Feb 23, 2021
–
LocalPlay
June 20, 2019
–
Buyt.in
July 15, 2015
–
Dailyhunt – Competitors
Though Dailyhunt was one of the early entrants in the market, today it faces strong competition in the market. There are a lot of applications with different USPs running for the first position in the market. Inshortsdirectly competes with Dailyhunt in the news aggregation space, along with the other applications of:
Newsstand
Business Insider
FirstPost
NDTV
Dainik Bhaskar
On the other hand, in the short video application of Dailyhunt, Josh competes with:
Moj by ShareChat
MX TakaTak
YouTube Shorts
Dailyhunt – Future Plans
Dailyhunt has spoken of its plans to reach 600 of the 725 districts in India from its presence in 400 districts, as per various reports in 2019.
“For the next 10 years, we are going to be all about Bharat or India that does not speak English to take to consumption in a big way with smartphones”, says Virendra Gupta, founder and CEO of Dailyhunt.
With the market becoming more favorable to IT companies in recent years, Dailyhunt is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) over the next two to three years, according to a news report from 2022, a top executive revealed in an interview. The announcement of Dailyhunt’s IPO comes at a time when many internet startups are considering the public markets as a means of funding and providing investors with exits.
FAQs
What is the Daily Hunt?
Dailyhunt is an Indian news and content aggregator app, which can also be termed a local news app that provides local language content in 14+ Indian languages from over 3000+ content providers.
Dailyhunt is from which country?
Dailyhunt originated in India. It previously had the Chinese Investor, ByteDance, in its cap table, who exited the company as of June 4, 2022.
Who is the DailyHunt app owner?
Dailyhunt’s parent company is VerSe Innovation, which is owned by Virendra Gupta. He is the founder and CEO of DailyHunt.
Are NewsHunt and DailyHunt the same?
The Dailyhunt company, as it stands now, was originally rebranded as Newshunt. So, essentially, NewsHunt and DailyHunt are the same platforms.
What languages does Dailyhunt support?
Dailyhunt has content in 14+ Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, English, Gujarati, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali, Urdu, Nepali, and Bhojpuri.
What is the Daily Hunt valuation?
Dailyhunt is a unicorn and boasts a valuation of $5 million as of 2022.
There is almost no big company or enterprise that didn’t start from scratch. From Tesla to Apple to Pixar, most of them started off with a great idea, lots of effort, and a small garage. With every passing day, entrepreneurs come up with amazing startup ideas and newer methods to implement them. This, however, is easier said than done, since startups need both funding and support along with immense hard work in their initial days to be successful. As part of its funding program, Google has helped some of the top startups, and some of those startups have become well-known companies.
This is where equity and venture firms come in. If they find the idea behind a startup reasonably adequate, they make the initial and much-needed investment in the startup. Blackstone and Apollo Global Management are some equity investment firms, while Google Ventures is a venture investment firm. But before knowing what startups are funded by Google, let’s find out how funding works.
Apparently, there are certainly different kinds of funding based on factors such as startup valuation, its customer base, strategy, revenue model and other technical factors. These funding are categorized as follows:
Pre-seed Funding– This is the earliest stage of a startup, and the funding here is mostly the initial investment in the idea and is done by the founders themselves. This stage isn’t even officially included in the funding rounds, however, it is where a startup begins.
Seed Funding– This is where the first official investment for a business or a venture is made. Seed funding helps startups take the initial steps towards making their products. While the failed startups never go beyond this stage, the one’s that do, proceed to the Series A round.
Series A Funding– Once a startup or company has surpassed Seed round, has an established user base, and offers its services or products, they can opt for Series A Funding. This is where startups can use the investment money to further optimize their product, and raise anywhere from $2 million to $15 million.
Series B Funding– After Series A, this round helps a business to advance to the next level. If the company has justified the initial investment with a strong customer base and valuation, Series B funding helps to take the business to the next level. The investment in this round can range from $30 million to $60 million.
Series C Funding– The businesses which are already successful and are looking to build new products to touch newer markets are funded in this round. The companies in this round may also acquire startups and the investors and founders in this round look for exponential growth. The valuation of companies in this round can range in hundreds of millions.
Although there can be more funding rounds corresponding to the alphabet, these are particularly the one’s where most startups reach. There is also private equity funding away from public markets in which private companies can finance startups privately.
Google Ventures is a venture capital investment firm of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, CEO is David Krane. Renamed to GV, the primary objective of Google Ventures since its conception has been to back founders with a vision for the future of entrepreneurship. GV has funded over 500 portfolio companies and is in constant search of new and industry-changing ideas and startups.
GV flaunts a team of founders, physicians, and other professionals, who have been in the startup ecosystem for a long, and understand it more than most people. This team of specialists, engineers, advisors, and fund operatives help GV to solve challenges and deliver feedback to create better services. GV invests across all stages and sectors, with a focus on enterprise, life sciences, consumer, and frontier technology. GV has made 988 investments so far. Recently on July 29, 2022, GV made a $3.3 Million investment in New York-based consumer Software, Studio.
Google Ventures on Investment in Startups
Startups Funded by Google
Slack
Industry: Enterprise Software GV Investment: $110.8 Million
Who in the digital world isn’t aware of the most popular cab serviceUber? It has turned out to be one of the most popular cab booking services around the globe, and both cab drivers, as well as people who need them use it on a regular basis. It is a consumer service and has also set its foot in the food delivery services. Uber has offered quality, door-to-door service and continues to do so by constantly introducing safety features in its Community Guidelines.Uber has been Google Ventures’ biggest investment to date. Google Ventures has invested approximately $1.8 Billion in Uber.
Industry: Digital Media GV Investment: $19 Million
Medium | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Medium is a blogging platform that suggests viewers blog through smart algorithms. World-class publications and experts publish their blogs in different niches, and viewers can choose their preferred subjects to read the latest research papers, articles, and blogs. The popularity of Medium attracted Google’s interest and they invested.Medium currently flaunts its user base of 170 million users and counting, with the writers including journalists, authors, experts, and individuals.
StockX
Industry: Stock Market GV Investment: $22 Million
StocksX | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
As described by Google Ventures, StockX is the world’s first ‘Stock Market for Things’. This is an online marketplace where both buyers and sellers put forth the bidding and asking amount, and as soon as both of them meet, the transaction takes place. The marketplace that StockX offers can be used to sell any sellable product from sneakers to watches; all you need to do is sign up. Google ventures and battery ventures invested $44 M in series B funding.
Industry: Digital Payment GV Investment: $600 million (along with other investors)
Stripe | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Stripe is one of the most popular payments processor for online transactions and in mobile applications. Today, millions of online and offline businesses from startups to bigger enterprises use Stripe as their payments processor. Be it Software as a Service, an online platform or your marketplace, Stripe can be used in all these cases either through the software or its API.
“Stripe is the best way to accept payments online and in mobile apps.” says Google Venture.
GitLab
Industry: Software GV Investment: $20 Million
GitLab | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
GitLab is a DevOps platform that accelerates development through collaboration and automation. With various organizations relying on its source code, CI/CD, and security, GitLab offers powerful automation with real-time security and vulnerability management. Moreover, GitLab is trusted by some well-known industry-leading companies including Nvidia, Siemens, and Drupal. GitLab has received funding from Google Ventures in both Series C and Series D rounds of funding.
DocuSign
Industry: Software GV Investment: $8.1 Million
Docusign | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
A leader in eSignature transaction management, DocuSign has become an industry and global standard for eSignatures. DocuSign gained popularity with the help of Google. DocuSign has garnered a user base of over 500k customers and hundreds of millions of signers. DocuSign was introduced and established based on the fact that most modern businesses will need to go online and hence the online document management needed to be taken into consideration. Google Ventures invested in Series D round in June 2012.
Magenta Therapeutics
Industry: Healthcare & Life Science GV Investment: $8 Million
Magenta therapeutics | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Magenta Therapeutics is a leading expert in harnessing stem cell biology for safer transplants. It endeavours to reset a patient’s immune system through stem cell transplant to cure diseases such as blood cancer. It is also developing novel medicines through commitment and excellence. Also, Magenta is revolutionizing medicine by precisely removing disease-causing cells and revamping stem cell mobilization.
“Magenta is harnessing stem cell biology to make transplants safer and more effective for patients with immune and blood-based diseases.” Says Google Venture.
One Medical
Industry: Healthcare GV Investment: $13 Million
One Medical | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
One Medical is currently trying to reinvent healthcare with innovation and technology. As of now, One Medical offers and schedules in-person or over video appointments, 24/7 on-demand video chats with a virtual medical team, over 90 drop-in lab services, along COVID-19 testing and care. Moreover, OneMedical acts as an employee benefits partner for over 7000 companies. Google Venture invested Private Equity round of funding in December 2015.
Zipline | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Zipline is a company that delivers life-saving medicines and drugs to remote and previously unreachable parts of the world using electric planes and drones. It makes precise, on-demand and critical deliveries, wherever and whenever needed, with safety and reliability. The access to on-demand delivery is made global, owing to Zipline, and it seeks to replace the traditional delivery system with customer-centred and cutting edge technology. Google venture Invested in Series C round of funding in May 2019. In the last funding round in June 2021, Zipline has raised a funding of $250M which made the startup valuation to be $2.5 billion.
Farmer Business Network
Industry: AgriTech GV Investment: $15 Million
farmers Business Network | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Farmer Business Network is a tool that helps farmers understand and enhance their crops and yields with advanced insights and real-time data analysis. It is a global Agritech company and seeks to help farmers reduce production costs, maximize crop yield and output, and make informed and confident decisions when it comes to crops. Farmer Business Network can help farmers manage contracts, select seeds, monitor fields, and organize operations with premium crop marketing and financial services. FBN raised a funding of $15 million in 2015 from Google Ventures. Recently, they raired $870 million in series G funding round in November 2021.
“Farmers Business Network generates powerful insights from real-time data to help farmers understand and improve their crop performance.” says Google Venture.
Sense
Industry: Artificial Intelligence GV Investment: $16 Million
Sense | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Sense is an artificial intelligence-driven talent engagement and communication platform that was founded by Dharni and Pankaj Jindal in 2015. The company has its headquarters in San Francisco and is known for providing enterprise-ready solutions that provide a system of engagement for talent acquisition teams.
Sense has so far helped many companies find, recruit, deploy talent and automate manual tasks for recruiters. The company has raised $16 million as part of its Series C round from Avataar, Google Ventures, Accel and Khosla Ventures. The company is said to use these funds to get a foothold in the Indian market, add new products, expand its team and go into newer geographies.
Scribble Data
Industry: Machine Learning GV Investment:
Scribble Data | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Scribble data is an ML engineering product company that offers ML Feature Store for mid-market enterprise data teams. The company is known for its flagship product known as Enrich, which is a highly customizable Machine Learning Feature. Scribble Enrich is a store product that allows data scientists to develop and manage production-ready datasets that are used to train ML models faster and with confidence.
Data-driven companies such as Google and Amazon have invested an undisclosed amount of money into the company in May 2020. Google funding for startups such as Scribble, has helped the platform to scale and deliver Enrich in international markets for enterprise-grade Machine Learning products.
Jio Platforms is an Indian technology company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. The company has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company acts as a holding company for Jio (which is India’s largest and the world’s third-largest mobile network) and other digital businesses of Reliance. As of 2020, Jio platforms became the fourth largest Indian company by market capitalization.
In November 2020, Google-funded $4.5 billion to the Jio platform, which makes it the biggest-ever investment in an Indian company. Google now reportedly holds over 7.73% share in the company. The company has now raised a total of Rs 1.52 lakh crore by selling an almost 33% stake to over 13 financial and strategic investors in under 11 weeks. This will help the company to cut down Reliance’s net debt target for the full fiscal year.
Wysa
Industry: Artificial Intelligence GV Investment:
Wysa | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Wysa is an AI-enabled life coach designed especially for mental and emotional wellness. The company was initially launched in 2017 and provides its users with the ability to activate coach and chat anonymously. The company provides early intervention through 3 methods, which are an AI chatbot, a library of self-help tools, and messaging-based support from human psychologists.
Google Ventures India, has funded an undisclosed amount in the AI Platform in May 2021. Wysa was a part of the first batch of 10 startups for Google Launchpad Accelerator India, which was held in 2018. In 2021 however, the Sleep by Wysa app was awarded the best app by the Google Play Store. According to Crunchbase, the company has so far raised $3.9 million from three funding rounds.
Dailyhunt
Industry: Social Media GV Investment: $33 Million
Dailyhunt | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
Dailyhunt is one of the leading Indian content and news aggregator app. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The platform provides news in 14 Indian languages from multiple content providers to over 300 million users. In 2015, Dailyhunt became the largest Indian language distributor of e-books having 70,000 titles in ten languages.
As of December 2020, Dailyhunt has raised over $100 million from Google, Microsoft and AlphaWave among other investors. Google funding rounds helped the company become a Unicorn as its value increased to over $1 billion. The company is planning to use the funds to scale its Josh app, which is an augmentation of local language content offerings. Google-funded startups in India with a budget of over $10 billion over a few years.
Glance
Industry: GV Investment:
Glance | Google Ventures | Startup Funded By Google
A google-funded startup called Glance is a startup that was founded in 2018. The company serves news, media content and games on the lock screen of more than 100 million smartphones. The company is a subsidiary of InMobi Group and is known for using AI to offer a personalized experience to its users.
The company raised over $145 million in a new financing round from Google and existing investors like Mithril Partners. According to Google, Glance is a great example of innovation solving for mobile-first & mobile-only consumption, and providing content across many Indian languages. Google funding for startups like Glance, has helped them evolve and grow their audience.
FAQs
What is Google Venture (GV)?
Google Ventures is a venture capital investment firm of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
Who is the CEO of GV (formerly Google Ventures)?
David Krane is the CEO of GV.
How many companies have Google Ventures funded?
Google Ventures has funded more than 500 companies. Some of them are:
Slack
Uber
Medium
StockX
Stripe
GitLab
DocuSign
Magenta Therapeutics
Dailyhunt
Glance
What are the sectors Google Ventures invest in?
Google Ventures invests across all stages of startups and varied sectors. The major industries in which Google Ventures invests are:
Enterprise
Life sciences
HealthCare
Consumer
Frontier technology.
How do startups get funded?
Startups use various methods for funding:
Small Business Loans
Trade Equity or Services
Incubator or Accelerator
Crowdfunding.
Who owns Google now?
The parent organization of Google is Alphabet Inc.
What do startups use the funding for?
Startups raise funds for various reasons, mainly for the growth and expansion of their business.
Who are the founders of Google?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the founders of Google.
The days when all the essential pieces of information from across the globe were shared by only the means of newspaper or the television screen are now the past of the present world.
Today, the news can be shared and accepted by just using a smartphone. There are several applications made across the globe that enable the sharing of news easily and fast. One such app is named Dailyhunt.
Dailyhunt is not something similar to other available platforms. Dailyhunt is one of the major platforms used for the sharing of news across the nation with many Indian languages accepted.
Introduced in the year 2010, Dailyhunt is a mobile-based news application and news aggregator platform giving a common point to all Indians. It is recorded to gain high popularity day by day mainly because of the multiple local languages supported by the platform. To know more about Dailyhunt’s business model, continue to read below.
Dailyhunt is a news aggregator and Indian content application that has its headquarters located in Bangalore, India. The company was formerly known as Newshunt and was launched in the year 2010. Dailyhunt provides news articles in local languages i.e., around 14 languages from different content providers.
Dailyhunt was previously named Newshunt
The mission of the company is “the Indic platform empowering a billion Indians to discover, consume and socialize with content that informs, enriches and entertains”.
The mobile application was produced by two ex-employees of Nokia and was then acquired by the founder of Verse Innovations. Later on, the mobile-based news-sharing service was renamed Dailyhunt during the peak of its popularity.
Dailyhunt is one of its kind of platforms that allows its users to share information in their own desired language rather than depending on any one language.
From the time of its introduction to now, Dailyhunt has seen great popularity in its name. Currently, Dailyhunt enjoys more than 350 million users monthly with its revenue around $127 million in 2022.
Currently, the platform is managed by Virendra Gupta who serves as the CEO of the firm, and Umang Bedi as the President of the platform.
Dailyhunt – Startup Story
Virendra Gupta – Founder and CEO of Dailyhunt
The most favoured local news platform Dailyhunt was started by two ex-Nokia employees in the year 2009. Soon, it was taken over by Virendra Gupta, the founder of Verse. The Verse Innovation was a value-added company. Verse innovation currently is a local language technology company and is counted as the parent organization of Dailyhunt.
The founder of Verse Innovation started his firm in the year 2007. But even after the success of the newly launched technology, something was missing in his innovation.
He believed that his product will not maintain its shine in the market for a longer period. At such moment, previously known as Newshunt came to his notice. Virendra Gupta purchased the Newshunt in 2011 and it was renamed Dailyhunt in 2015.
The vision seen by Virendra Gupta on Dailyhunt was to create a platform that provides content in vernacular languages. He believed that 70% of India consists of non-English speakers and that was the target audience for Dailyhunt. Hence, after taking over the Newshunt and with the introduction of better facilities, Dailyhunt kept on becoming a larger platform and giving tough competition to non-Indian platforms.
Dailyhunt – Business Model
Dailyhunt Group has different types of offerings which are mainly divided into 3 broad categories. One of the key features of this application is that they provide content in regional languages.
The company acts as a news aggregator through Dailyhunt, they also have another entity called Greynium Technologies that house news and various other platforms that provide content such as CareerIndia, OneIndia, Boldsky.com, Gizbot, etc. The company has also launched a platform named Josh which is similar to TikTok as a short video-sharing platform.
As mentioned earlier the important feature of all the application are it provides content in local languages. Dailyhunt provides content in 14 different languages, whereas Josh provides content in 12 different languages and the other content platforms provide content in 9 different languages.
The Dailyhunt group has a huge base of content providers which include 100K content partners, news content published in 14 different languages by content creators producing 250K news every day.
What Is Unique About the Business Model of Dailyhunt?
Dailyhunt’s business model is very unique compared to other content providers as mentioned earlier all the platforms of Dailyhunt provide various content in local languages. The English content providers will have to directly compete with already well-established global creators such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Whereas Dailyhunt concentrates on the Indian market by providing content in local languages. The application has also been able to secure a well-established position in the market.
Dailyhunt – Target Audience
Dailyhunt focuses mainly on the millennial group in the country where the age varies from 25-34 years. However, the company focuses on providing content in regional local languages through which it targets all the major populations in India including the people from rural areas as well.
Global Ranking Chart of Dailyhunt
Dailyhunt – Competitors
Even though Dailyhunt had stepped foot into the market at an early stage, they have many competitors in the news industry. With the growth of digital content, a lot of applications are racing to reach the number one position in the news aggregator Industry.
The competitors of Dailyhunt are Feedly, Google News, Flipboard, Inshorts, etc
There is no direct competition for Dailyhunt as they have content in various languages. One of the major competitors as a news aggregator for Dailyhunt is Google News.
Other than Google News some of the other competitors of Dailyhunt include Flipboard, Inshorts, Briefing, Feedly, etc.
Dailyhunt’s major source of revenue is through advertisements however, in the year FY19-20 the company was able to increase its revenue up by 100% year on year despite the pandemic. Other than this the application concentrated on raising funds and has had multiple funding rounds.
Recently in the year 2020, Dailyhunt had become a Unicorn Startup in India. The company has received a total funding of around USD 540 million and the most recent funding was USD 207 million which was through Series H funding.
The company also receives revenue through e-books as well as magazines. Anyone can read the news provided by Dailyhunt for free of cost but for downloading the books or magazines one will have to make a payment for it.
Conclusion
Dailyhunt was one of the unique platforms that gain popularity quickly despite the risks present in the market. From the time of its start to now Dailyhunt has seen significant growth in the news aggregator market and through its unique approach to providing content in different languages, the company was able to stand out from its competitors. The above text provides basic information about Dailyhunt and its business model.
FAQs
How does Dailyhunt make money?
There are multiple ways through which Dailyhunt creates revenue. One of the major sources of income for Dailyhunt is by the means of advertising. Dailyhunt earns money by selling out advertisements for different startups and services on its application.
Who is Virendra Gupta?
Virendra Gupta is the founder and Present CEO of the company, Dailyhunt.
Is Dailyhunt a product-based company?
No, Dailyhunt is not a product-based company. Instead, it can be considered a service-based company mostly used for sharing information.
Who are the investors of Dailyhunt?
Dailyhunt has more than one investor attached to it. Some of them are Kotak Investment Advisors, Luxor Capital Group, Baillie Gifford, Sumeru Ventures, and many others.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by VerSe Innovation.
The evolution of technology has given rise to many modern innovations. With the introduction of TVs in 1959 and mobile phones in 1995 in India, there has been an enormous growth happening in the field of communication and entertainment. Particularly, the growth of mobile phones is unbelievable in the country. According to a report by Deloitte, India is expected to have 1 billion smartphone users by 2026.
With this medium growing, the elements (content and programs) for entertainment and communication have also started to evolve. Earlier, we listened to the news readers reading some selected news in a particular time slot. Today we get to choose what, when and where to read. The news reaches us more quickly in a short and crispy manner. Knowing the pacing world and people’s lack of time, even the entertainment industry has started making changes accordingly.
VerSe is one of those companies that has adapted itself to the haste of the world. It is the parent company of the popular news application ‘Dailyhunt’ and the short video platform ‘Josh’. This tech platform offers content and videos in many local languages to keep its users updated and entertained. The article below speaks about the growth, funding and success story of VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd.
VerSe Innovation is a technology platform that offers its users to consume information and socialize with their community and media. Started as a Value Added Service (VAS) platform in 2007, VerSe Innovation started to flourish after the acquisition of Newshunt (Dailyhunt) in 2011. Later, in 2020, the company launched a new short video app called Josh which became an instant and tremendous hit.
Virendra Gupta, Shailendra Sharma and Umang Bedi are the co-founders of VerSe Innovation. The company’s headquarters is situated in Bengaluru, Karnataka. This platform has over 350 million users as of today. Its services (both Dailyhunt and Josh) are available in 14 Indian Languages.
VerSe Innovation – Founders and Team
Virendra Gupta and Umang Bedi – VerSe Innovation Founders
VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd. was founded in 2007 and has three co-founders. It was founded by Virendra Gupta, Umang Bedi, and Shailendra Sharma.
Virendra Gupta
Virendra Gupta is the founder of VerSe Innovation and Dailyhunt. He also serves as the CEO of Dailyhunt. Before founding VerSe, Virendra Gupta worked in various companies namely, BPL Mobile, On mobile, Bharti Cellular Ltd. and Trilogy. He graduated with a master’s in Management from IIT Bombay – Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management.
Umang Bedi
Umang Bedi is the co-founder at VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd. He graduated in engineering from Pune University and did a Management Program at Harvard Business School. Umang Bedi worked in various big tech companies before joining VerSe Innovation. He earlier worked in Satyam Computer Services, Wipro Corporation, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Symantec Corporation. He also served as the Managing Director of Intuit Inc, Adobe (South Asia) and Facebook (India & South Asia). Bedi currently serves as the Statutory Board Member of Goals 101 in addition to VerSe Innovation.
Shailendra Sharma
Shailendra Sharma is another co-founder at VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd. He also served as the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Dailyhunt. Earlier, he also worked in Tata Research and Development Center, Persistent Systems Pvt Ltd and Trilogy.
Sandip Basu
Sandip Basu is the Chief Financial Officer at VerSe Innovation who was recently appointed in January 2022. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant from the respective institutes. He worked in Bharti Airtel as its CFO for 5 years until 1997. Sandip Basu served as the CEO of several companies between 1997 and 2015 namely, BPL Mobile communications Ltd, Xcel Telecom Pvt Ltd and Loop Mobile India Pvt Ltd.
Bapu Kota
Bapu Kota is currently the Senior Vice President of Engineering at VerSe Innovation. He earlier served as the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Dailyhunt. Bapu Kota graduated M.Tech (Production Engineering) from IIT Bombay in 1996. He was once the Senior Director at Yahoo and AOL.
VerSe Innovation currently has a team of around 501-1000 employees.
VerSe Innovation – Startup Story
VerSe Innovation Logo
When VerSe Innovation was founded in 2007, it commenced its business operation as a B2B company. It was assisting telecom companies in the process of sending SMS alerts, notifying subscribers for newsletters, matrimonial sites, etc., This business went on for around three years. Later, in 2011, the founders decided to acquire Eterno Infotech, which used to run Dailyhunt (earlier Newshunt) from Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni. Newshunt was later rebranded after 4 years and made Dailyhunt. This marked the company’s foray into the B2C market, the real business and growth of VerSe Innovation began only then.
VerSe Innovation – Mission and Vision
“To learn and define the real principles of inclusive and empowering technologies that seek to bridge the divide across class, culture, language and geography” – VerSe Innovation
It is the guiding principle with which VerSe Innovation functions. The company wants to empower the nation digitally and eliminate the language barriers. It wanted its platform to be accessible by everyone.
VerSe Innovation’s vision is “To create the world’s largest, most inclusive platform for content creators and audiences.” The company utilizes every inch of technological advancements to enhance and broaden its platform. VerSe’s investments and expansion plans reveal its steady growth towards its vision.
VerSe Innovation – Business and Revenue Model
VerSe Innovation offers content to users in their local language. It provides short and authenticated content through its platform to keep the viewer entertained and informed. The company generates revenue from the ads displayed on its apps and sites. VerSe also makes revenue often from tie-ups made with some businesses on its platform.
VerSe Innovation – Funding and Investors
VerSe Innovation has received 23 investments from various investors through multiple funding rounds. With the recent funding in April 2022, VerSe Innovation’s total valuation has reached $5 billion. Here is the list of all the funding received by the company:
Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Renu Sehgal Trust, InnoVen Capital
September 3, 2018
Series E
$6 million
Alpha Wave Global
October 15, 2016
Series D
$25 million
Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners, Falcon Capital, ByteDance, Arun Sarin
February 6, 2015
Series C
$40 million
Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners, Alpha Wave Global
September 22, 2014
Series B
$13 million
Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners
February 7, 2011
Unknown
Rs 286 million
–
July 31, 2010
Unknown
Rs 111 million
–
September 29, 2009
Unknown
Rs 30 million
–
January 1, 2009
Unknown
Rs 200 million
Matrix Partners India
July 1, 2007
Seed
Rs 22 million
OnMobile
Sofina, Bytedance, Matrix Partners, Sequoia, Goldman Sachs, Alpha Wava Global were among some of the lead investors of VerSe, until Bytedance exited the captable at a discount of 56%, as per the news dated June 4, 2022. The regulator fillings of the company revealed that Bytedance sold its stakes to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
VerSe Innovation – Mergers and Acquisitions
Apart from Newshunt and Eterno Infotech Pvt Ltd (both are addressed as Dailyhunt today), VerSe Innovation has acquired three companies for an undisclosed amount.
Acquisition Date
Name of the Company
Amount
October 13, 2021
GolBol
–
March 10, 2021
Vebbler
–
February 23, 2021
Cognirel
–
VerSe Innovation – Growth
Started as an assistive company for telcos, VerSe’s growth is believed to have kickstarted with the takeover of Newshunt in 2011. With consistent funding and backup from the investors, VerSe started to grow along with Newshunt. In 2015, the company renamed its news platform as Dailyhunt. Today, Verse’s Dailyhunt offers content in 14 languages and has a monthly viewer count of over 350 million.
In 2020, VerSe Innovation launched a short video app named ‘Josh’, a replacement for ‘TikTok’ right after its ban. This app became an immediate sensational hit among Indians. It took just 45 days for this entertainment platform to reach 23 million active users. Josh today has over 150 million monthly active users with 50 million creators as of April 2022. VerSe Innovation’s uncompromising goal toward technological development paved the way for its venture’s success. There was a 149% increase in its revenue during the previous financial year (March 2021) which is further expected to grow in the current and upcoming years.
VerSe Innovation’s Expansion to the MENA Region
VerSe Innovation plans to expand in the market of the Middle East. This will be started with Dailyhunt’s foray into Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait and is expected later to expand to other countries too, including Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Egypt. Furthermore, in the MENA region, Dailyhunt would also be launched in 3 other languages – Hebrew, Farsi, and Arabic in the MENA region. Desktop, web, and mobile app version, will be the 3 different versions that Dailyhunt will launch in, which will be available for both iOS and Android platforms.
As per the news dated June 21, 2022, VerSe’s strategic and business development in the MENA region will be led by Shekhar Iyer, whom the company has appointed as the director and general manager. Iyer has previously worked with Abu Dhabi Media (Radio Mirchi), Percept Gulf (MAME), Zee Entertainment, Indian Express, and Khaleej Times for which he has been given this opportunity.
Dailyhunt’s expansion plans to the MENA region will be fuelled by VerSe’s partnership with 5000+ content partners, which will include numerous news platforms including Al Khaleej, The Brew, MENA Newswire, Brandknew, KKompany, Chalk Media, Mudgal Kreations, Buzzing, and Gulf Today.
VerSe Innovation – Competitors
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is an American digital media company that offers entertainment and news to its users. The company’s headquarters is located in New York, USA. The platform’s ‘social sharing’ feature and a lot of interesting content and activities keep the users coming back to them.
Inshorts
Inshorts is another digital news platform that gives the latest news in a crispy manner. Every news on its platform does not exceed 60 words. Inshorts contain news from all categories like business, sports, fashion, current events, etc. It is considered to be one of the top competitors of VerSe Innovation’s Dailyhunt.
Moj
Moj is a short-video-sharing platform similar to Josh. It proves to be the best competitor of Josh in terms of content, quality, services offered, etc. Moj is available in 16 languages.
ShareChat
ShareChat is another social networking service founded in 2015 in Bengaluru. It has both news and entertainment-based content in its application. This platform provides a facility called chatroom, which often organizes some chat sessions with celebrities. ShareChat functions in 15 languages and has 250 million active monthly users.
VerSe Innovation – Future Plans
VerSe Innovation plans to induce technological advancements and Artificial Intelligence into its system. The company recently received huge funds from investors. The co-founders said that these funds would be used to set up labs across the globe to solve video encoding problems on its platform.
VerSe also has plans to expand into the international market, especially in South East Asia. After achieving the targeted growth in India, the company will set its foot outside the country within a year.
FAQs
What is VerSe Innovation as a company about?
VerSe Innovation is a technology platform that helps its users to consume information and socialize with their community and media.
Who are the founders of VerSe Innovation?
Virendra Gupta, Umang Bedi, and Shailendra Sharma are the co-founders of the company.
What is the total valuation of VerSe Innovation?
With the recent funding worth $805 mn that came in April 2022, the company’s total valuation has reached $5 billion.
What are the platforms that are functioning under VerSe Innovation?
Dailyhunt and Josh are the two popular platforms that come under VerSe Innovation.
To build a startup, one needs more than talent, perseverance, and desire. On that list of necessities, funds take the number one spot. For any kind of startup, getting funds is definitely not a piece of cake.
Trifecta Capital with its existence makes acquiring funds a little bit easier for startups. The traditional way of getting a loan from a bank is not that easy, not every new company gets that help.
Thankfully, venture debt like thing exists in reality. Trifecta Capital here plays a significant role. It is one of the companies that put its trust in the startups that have the potential to reach the peak of success. At this age, having someone, who puts their trust in you, is something, that is truly rare. Trifecta Capital lends its hands to new businesses and takes a pledge to rise with them together.
We rise by lending a hand to others.
-Svetlana Fernandes
About Trifecta Capital
Trifecta Capital is the first company in India, that provides venture debt to startups. It first steps its foot in the business world in the year 2014, as a venture debt firm. It was founded by Nilesh Kothari and Rahul Khanna. The firm mostly focuses on, early growth stage companies and had invested almost ₹1800 Crores from 2015 to 2020.
At first, it launched with a ₹500 Crore fund. Trifecta with its ways gets to be a part of the growth of different companies. It has invested in over 70 companies and counting. Their aim is “Financial offering designed to help you at every step of your journey to success.”
Trifecta definitely has one of the strongest portfolios. It has funded some big names in the business and has been a part of their growth process. Some of those companies are: Lets look at Business Funded By Trifecta Capital
The largest online grocery store in India, Bigbasket delivers grocery and household items to the customers. Founded in 2011 by Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh, VS Sudhakar, and Abhinay Choudhari. BigBasket has taken an initiative to deliver fresh grocery items to the doorsteps of every household that demands them.
BigBasket secured a new deal with Trifecta in July 2019 and fixed a venture debt of ₹100 Crores. Before that, in 2017, Trifecta lend its hand to BigBasket by providing a fund of ₹45 Crore. This time, BigBasket stated that the ₹100 Crores fund will mostly use in supply chains and warehouses. The Covid-19 pandemic led to a sharp 84% rise in the number of its consumers. As per the Financial year 2021, this e-commerce revenue is INR 3818.2 Crores.
Infra.Market
InfraMarket Logo
The construction solution company uses technology to organize the construction industry and make the price of materials more transparent. It was founded in the year 2016 by Aaditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta. It deals with the real estate and construction industry and is a platform that connects clients to those who provide materials at an affordable cost.
In the year 2020, Infra.Market raised ₹40 Crore as venture debt from Trifecta. It fund was reportedly used for geographical expansion. As per the year 2021, Infra.Market’s revenue is $700 million.
PharmEasy
PharmEasy Logo
Another online business, this time it deals with the purchase and delivery of medicine and other medical supplies. It is India’s finest pharmacy app. The best thing is, the customers receive the medicine within 48 hours of their order placement.
It came into existence in 2014 and is founded by Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, and Mikhil Innani. It connects the consumers with pharmacy stores that are situated nearby and helps in getting medical supplies in just a click.
Trifecta invested ₹15 Crore in PharmEasy in the December of 2017 as the venture debt. Later in 2018 E-pharmacy startup PharmEasy raised Rs 40 crore of debt from Trifecta. India’s top Pharmacy app decided to use the fund provided by Trifecta to develop their technology to establish more smooth performance. As per the financial year 2020, the revenue of PharmEasy is ₹637 Crore.
This mobile application software has taken it upon itself to provide news on all trending topics. Founded in the year 2007 by Umang Bedi, Umesh Kulkarni, and Virendra Gupta, it is serving Indian customers every day since then. It is based in Bangalore, India.
Trifecta has invested a confidential amount of money in Dailyhunt. As per the financial year of 2020, the revenue of Daily Hunt is ₹310 Crore
ShareChat
ShareChat Logo
It is a social media and social networking service (SNS) founded in the year 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan. The best part is, it is available in 15 regional languages of India. As its name suggests one can share content and it has the feature of the direct message as well.
In the year 2020, ShareChat secured a deal with Trifecta and got a venture debt of $8.86 million. The revenue of ShareChat is ₹38.12 Crore as per the financial year of 2020.
Cars24
Cars24 Logo
Cars24 is an online marketplace to buy and sell previously owned cars and bikes. It was founded by Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, and Vikram Chopra in 2015. It is now quite easy to sell a car, which was quite a hassle before, thanks to Cars24. It is considered one of India’s fastest-growing marketplaces for selling used cars.
In 2017, the then two-year-old company was able to strike a deal with Trifecta. At that time, Trifecta invested a non-disclosed amount in the company. This time, Cars24 seal a deal of ₹100 Crore from the venture debt firm Trifecta in June 2021.
With the demand spurring for used cars in the country, Cars24 will use this fund to make its business more strong in the industry. In return, this will help it become a strong competitor for its rival businesses. The revenue of Cars24 is ₹1688 Crore.
CarDekho
CarDekho Logo
This is an online platform where one can sell and buy cars. It provides every bit of information about the automobile industry. It is based in Gurgaon, India, and was founded in the year 2007 by Amit Jain and Anurag Jian.
In the year 2018 CarDekho raises a fund of $3.6 million from Trifecta and in 2021 they again got venture debt of ₹100 Crore. As per the financial year 2020, the revenue of CarDekho is ₹240 Crore.
It is considered India’s largest platform of the fresh produce supply chain. It was founded by Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Babu Loganathan, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Vasu Devan in the year 2015. It helps in distributing fruits and vegetables directly from farmers to buyers.
In the year 2018, Ninjacart raised ₹7 Crore venture debt from Trifecta Capital, and again in 2019, it secured a deal venture debt of almost ₹20 Crore. As per the report, the funding is being used for the growth of infrastructure and the technology Ninjacart uses. The revenue of this company in the 2020 financial year is ₹469 Crore.
Vedantu
Vedantu Logo
Founded in the year 2011, Vedantu is an online tutoring platform for students. Here, one can find any subject tutor according to their choice and indulge with them in studies. The platform provides ‘LIVE’ one on one session between the teachers and the students. It is created by Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, and Anand Prakash.
The app is extremely popular among students as it provides online tutoring. With superior technology, they are trying to engage in building up the biggest learning platform for students. It focuses on providing quality education and good teachers to the users of the app.
The venture debt firm Trifecta invests ₹9.42 Crore in Vedantu in the year 2019. This made the online platform’s value $100 million. Vedantu caters to the needs of over 40,000 students from all over the country.
BharatPe
BharatPe Logo
Founded in the year 2018 by Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, and Shashvat Nakrani, this financial service provider company mostly deal with payments via UPI. Based in New Delhi, India this company provides loans to its traders as well.
Trifecta funded ₹50 Crore to this Fintech company in 2021, the fund will be used for the growth of the lending business. The revenue as per the financial year of 2021 is ₹700 Crore.
Future Plans of Trifecta Capital
Trifecta is trying to help the startups that have high growth potential by providing them with funds and have a mission to make India one of the main hubs of Startups.
Conclusion
We live in a time where getting funds to begin with a startup is quite difficult. Trifecta started their journey to be the hope for those budding startups that showcase high growth and has a possibility of becoming a big brand in the near future. It is working and lending a helping hand to the dreamers to make their dream a reality, thus, their motive is to rise by lifting others.
Some of these companies are breaking the business world every day and proving their mettle by keeping the trust of Trifecta. Let’s learn about those companies a little bit.
FAQ
Where is Trifecta Capital Located?
Trifecta Capital is based and operates from Mumbai.
How much Trifecta Capital has invested?
Trifecta Capital has invested over ₹2200 Crore since 2015.
Who is the founder of Trifecta Capital?
Nilesh Kothari and Rahul Khanna are the founders of Trifecta Capital.
Usually investment firms only fund a startup when they see potential to grow their money. However philanthropic investment firms fund in startups that help achieve their philanthropic endeavors like solving a country’s problems or empowering the civil society.
One such philanthropic investment firm and a non-profit organization is Omidyar Network India, which was established in 2004 by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pamela Kerr. Omidyar Network India is part of the US based Omidyar Group which is a diverse collection of companies, organizations and initiatives that are dedicated in creating opportunity for people to improve their lives.
Omidyar Network India has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra with over a 50 employees in the country. Omidyar Network invests in innovative organization and bold entrepreneurs that will eventually catalyze economic, social or political change. As of 2017, the firm had invested in more than 60 companies within a decade, and raised more $350 million by 2020.
So far the organization has committed over $992 million to profit, nonprofit and public companies that aim in fostering economic advancement and that are trying to solve the problems of India’s hardest and most difficult problems and challenges.
Omidyar Network India makes equity investments upcoming companies and provide grants to non-profit organizations in the areas of Digital Identity, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance and Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights. The organization invests in 3 levels which are :
Supporting new and upcoming market innovators,
Help in building institutional & market infrastructure and
Working with the Indian Government to promote inclusion, entrepreneurship, competition, and ensure necessary safeguards and protections.
Here are some of the startups funded by Omidyar Network India
Quikr
Quikr is the India’s top online classifies platform that helps people of a particular city meet, trade, buy and sell household goods, cars, bikes, local services and even find jobs, among other services. Quikr was founded in 2008 by Pranay Chulet and has its headquarters based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
The company is currently has its footprint in 1000 different cities around the world. Quikr aims on empowering people to independently connect with different buyers and sellers. The company has so far raised over $350 million in 7 rounds in order to fulfill its dream of disrupting the ecommerce market in country and empower people.
In 2009, the company raised over Rs 200 million in their second round of funding which was led by Omidyar Network and Matrix Partners India. Quikr has a long list of investors like Tiger global, Kinnevik, Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network, Norwest Venture, Nokia growth Partners, Warburg Pincus and eBay, etc.
HealthKart
HealthKart is known to be India’s largest online nutrition and fitness platform that offers products, services and even expert advice or assistance to fitness enthusiasts. The company also has leading subsidiaries like MuscleBlaze for (sports and fitness) and Healthkart for (health).
HealthKart sells everything from protein supplements to vitamin smoothies at affordable prices. The company has it’s headquarters in Gurgaon and sells more than 200 brand products and authorized vendors that is listed on their website. It is known for nutrition products that are sold especially to elderly people, personal care, chronic care, eye and skin care.
The startup raised over Rs 27 crore in their second round of funding from their existing investor Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network India. With this the company expanded its product portfolio and is also developing an online magazine about health and fitness.
Dailyhunt is one of the top news and local language content app in India. Currently, the company has over 150 plus million app installations with more than 100,000 news articles that are available in 14 different languages.
The company was founded in 2007 by Virendra Gupta and its parent company is Verse Innovation. Dailyhunt claims to have 150 million monthly users and 27 million daily users. It also has 650 publication partners, while their content is created by machine learning algorithm that delivers real time personalized content.
The company raised over Rs 24.61 crore in series E2 funding from Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Capital and the Renu Sehgal Trust. Omidyar also funds other news aggregators like Pratilipi and Helofy. The competitors of Dailyhunt are NewsDog which is backed by Tencent and Helo backed by Toutiao.
1mg
1mg Website
1mg is one of the top online pharmacy and integrated health application in India and is known for its wide range of medicines, health products, online consultation, booking lab tests and providing information on doctors, clinics, diagnostic centres, pharmacies, etc.
The company promotes transparency around medicine information and is the one stop shop for medical search and transaction experience. During the pandemic, the platform has become popular as it delivers medicines and health products at the safety of the homes in more than 1000 cities across India from Licensed pharmacies.
In 2016, 1mg raised over $15 million in their series B funding round from Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network India. The company at that time said that it was going to use the funds to expand their online pharmacy and diagnostics and also launch personalized health feeds for their consumers.
Scripbox is an online mutual funds platform, which was founded by Sanjiv Singhal in 2012. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka and uses proprietary algorithms to curate a portfolio out of 8000 other mutual funds in country, they are then divided into equity, debt and tax savings.
The company aims to educate young working professionals to save and grow their wealth and also encouraging people to explore inflation beating instruments rather than the usual inflation par instruments like fixed deposits and gold. As according to E R Ashok Kumar, the CEO of Scripbox, equities will give people over 15% returns than compared to the traditional forms of investing.
The company raised an undisclosed amount in their series B round investment from Omidyar Network India and Accel partners. The company joins Omidyars’s other investment made in the sector of personal savings such as Juntos from US and Tandem from UK. Scripbox was planning to expand to 1000 cities by 2020 with its funds.
Transerve
Transerve is a platform that offers geospatial tech based SAAS solutions. The platform allows solutions for sustainable growth and urban planning. Transerve is used by both individuals and companies for visualizing and sharing spatial data and map visualization through Map APIs.
The platform is a data collector, has location intelligence and helps in mapping precisely so the companies can geo locate data and then make smart and accurate decisions. The company also built many apps and platforms like CityOS in order to solve problems which are related to urban setup, Watsan for waters supply and sanitation solutions and deploys Lidar for heritage restoration and highway engineering.
The company aims in providing solutions to modernize a city’s municipal information system, which is why it went on to raise $1.6 million in Series A funding from IL and FS Investment Managers and Omidyar Network.
Vedantu is a well-known Ed tech company that allows teachers to provide Live tuitions to students online. The online tutoring platform has more than 500 of India’s best curated teachers and over 1 million hours to over 40,000 students across 1000 plus cities from 30 countries.
Vedantu uses a built in technology known as WAVE to create a marketplace model for teachers, where students can browse, discover and choose to learn from a particular teacher. So far the app offers teaching classes for 6th to 12th grades and also for co-curricular and competitive examinations.
Vedantu raised $11 million in Series B funding round from Omidyar Network in 2018. It also went on to raise $12.5 million in Series C-1 round of funding from Legend Capital and Omidyar’s Ohana Holding in 2020.
ZestMoney
ZestMoney is India’s fastest growing Fintech startup that was founded in 2015 by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman. ZestMoney uses mobile technology, AI and digital banking facilities to make life more affordable to millions of Indians by managing their credit for them and helping them pay in affordable EMIs.
The platform was made with the aim of improving lives of the people who don’t have an access to credit card or other financial option due to insufficient credit history.
The Bengaluru based digital lending startup raised over $20 million funding in Series B round from Quona Capital, Reinventure, Omidyar Network, Ribbit Capital and PayU. The company is said to use these funds for expanding their platform with EMI-based financing for e-commerce and for other online purchases.
Credflow is a New Delhi based Fintech startup, that offers small and medium enterprises (SMEs) solutions for cash flow management. With the help of the platform SMEs can manage their finances better with timely insights of pending amounts by customers, sending regular payment reminders, validating invoices and negotiating discounts for early payment, among others.
So far over 5000 SMEs are said to have used Credflow to process invoices that are worth over Rs 70,000 crore. The main aim of Credflow is to help small businesses grow exponentially by managing their banking, payments, and treasury.
Credflow raised $2.1 million in their seed round of funding from Stellaris Venture, Omidyar Network and Flourish Ventures. The company said that they would use the funds to develop its platform, strengthen its technology and come up with new products in order to expand their customer base.
WhiteHat Jr
WhiteHat Jr Website
WhiteHat Jr is a Mumbai based Edtech startup that offers live online 1:1 classes on coding and math. The platform is also built on the foundational skills like literacy and numeracy from an early stage.
WhiteHat Jr helps in connecting top certified teachers that can teach children topics such as e-learning, coding, early childhood education, computational thinking, logic, algorithmic thinking, etc. After learning the kids are encouraged to come up with creative outcome like animations and apps.
The startup raised over $1.3 million in a seed funding round from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar’s Network India in 2018. It also raised $10 million in their Series A funding round by their existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar’s Network India in 2019. The company said that they would use the funds to strengthen their platform and expand their curriculum and marketing to increase consumer awareness.
Newslaundry
Newlaundry is a well-known independent news media company that provides its readers with media critique, reportage, satirical commentary, podcasts, documentaries, comics and animation content. The media company was founded by former journalists Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen in 2012.
Newslaundry was also the first subscription based website in India, as unlike other news websites like The Wire, The Quint, Scroll, etc the company relies on public subscriptions for revenue instead of advertisements. In 2016, the media company raised Rs 3.1 crore from Omidyar Network, Omidyar now owns 18.4% stake in the company.
Over the years Omidyar Network Indian helped in driving empowerment and social impact at a big scale, by investing in startups and entrepreneurs who aim in providing solutions to solve Indian chronic problems. Even during the Covid 19 pandemic, Omidyar Network funded over Rs. 10.75 crores to 67 projects out of 2000 under the Rapid response funding initiative in 2020. The investment firm will continue to help many upcoming startup grow and bolster a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Omidyar Network India?
Omidyar Network India is part of the US based Omidyar Group which is a diverse collection of companies, organizations and initiatives that are dedicated creating opportunity for people to improve their lives.
Who is the founder of Omidyar Network India?
The philanthropic investment firm and a non-profit organization was founded by Pierre Omidyar (also the founder of eBay) and his wife Pamela Kerr.
What are the areas that Omidyar Network India funds?
The areas in which Omidyar Network India funds are Digital Identity, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance and Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights.
What are some of the Top startups funded by Omidyar Network India?
The startups funded by Omidyar Network India are Newslaundry, WhiteHat Jr, Credflow, ZestMoney, Vedantu, Transerve, Scripbox, Dailyhunt, 1mg, HealthKart and Quikr.
