VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd, parent of local language news aggregator Dailyhunt and short-form video app Josh, has raised nearly $28 million (a little over Rs 207 crore) as a part of its Series I funding round from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), according to a regulatory filing.
As a part of the transaction, VerSe Innovation allotted 50,148 Series I2 Preference shares and 10 Series I equity shares to CPPIB at an issue price of Rs 41,283.50 per share, the regulatory filing showed. Ver Se Innovation has now diluted 21.46% stake with the latest round, with promoters holding the rest, the filings show. The company will use the funds for general corporate purposes, according to the regulatory filing
News website Entrackr first reported the transaction, saying that the latest fundraise has valued the company at $3.1 billion. “The recent round is part of our Series I closure, which concluded with CPPIB. With this recent round, our current valuation stands at $3.1 billion,” the company said in a response to a mail sent by VCCircle.
VerSe Innovation had raised $450 million as a part of its Series I round from global investors Siguler Guff, Baillie Gifford, affiliates of Carlyle Asia Partners Growth II and others in August last year. Existing investors Sofina Group, QIA and BCap had also participated in the funding round back then. The fundraise had more than doubled Ver Se Innovation’s valuation from when it hit a unicorn valuation, VCCircle had reported.
The company had joined the coveted unicorn club in December 2020 after it raised over $100 million from Google and other investors. Unicorns are private companies with over $1 billion valuation.
VerSe Innovation had recently bought Indian social networking app GolBol. As a part of the transaction, GolBol’s entire team including Co-founders Shanu Vivek, Karandeep Singh Gujral and Kaushik Mahato to help multiply the impact of Josh, the company had said. GolBol was Ver Se Innovation’s third acquisition of 2021. The company had previously bought Bengaluru-based Cognirel Technologies Pvt Ltd to improve its AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities and video-sharing app Vebbler, to increase creator offerings on Josh. In an interaction in August last year, the company’s Co-founders had said that the company was eyeing as many as 12 acquisitions in 8-10 months.
VerSe Innovation, earlier this month, roped in Sandip Basu, a former Airtel executive, as its group Chief Financial Officer, at a time when the company is aggressively focussing on monetisation strategy and extending its tech platforms to plug content needs of local language audiences globally.
Dailyhunt was launched as Newshunt by former Nokia executives Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni in 2009 and sold to VerSe Innovation in 2012. Newshund was then rebranded as Dailyhunt in August 2015. The company uses a proprietary algorithm to deliver personalised news content. It offers news articles and other content licensed from thousands of partners.
Note: The article has been updated with spokesperson comments to reflect that the company is now valued at $3.1 billion.
