Noida-based mobile news curation app Inshorts has raised $5 million (Rs 32.2 crore) from existing investor Tiger Global in a bridge round of funding, two media reports stated.
While Bloomberg Quint reported the development citing the company’s filings with Singapore-based Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, digital news platform Inc42 said the deal was closed in September this year. The funding was raised from Tiger Global's Singapore-based affiliate investment vehicle, Internet Fund III Pte Holdings.
The investment was made into the startup's Singapore-based holding entity, Inshorts Pte Ltd, which was later transferred into its Indian subsidiary, Inshorts Media Labs Pvt Ltd. Inshorts also has another India-registered entity called ADA News in Shorts Pvt Ltd. It is not clear which is the company’s current flagship Indian subsidiary.
Filings with the Registrar of Companies show that Inshorts Medialabs Pvt Ltd received Rs 5.58 crore in two tranches in September this year from its Singapore-based parent.
Tiger Global and the co-founders of Inshorts, Deepit Purkayastha, Azhar Iqubal and Anunay Pandey, did not immediately respond to email queries from VCCircle, seeking confirmation.
The development comes after media reports stated that Inshorts was looking to raise anywhere between $10million and $15 million in a fresh round of funding, with Tiger Global leading the round.
In July 2015, Tiger Global had invested $20 million (Rs 127 crore) as part of Inshorts' Series B funding round.
In February 2015, the company raised $4 million (Rs 25 crore) in a Series A round from Tiger Global, Japan’s Rebright Partners along with Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.
Inshorts was started in 2013 by by DPurkayastha, an IIT Kharagpur dropout, along with IIT Delhi dropouts Iqubal and Arunav. It secured a seed round of funding in June 2014.
Inshorts began as a Facebook page two years ago, and picked up followers immediately. It was shortlisted for the third batch of Nasscom’s 10,000 Startups programme and then incubated at Tlab.
The company picks news stories from across categories, edits them and provides the essence of those stories within 60 words each.
Users can also pick news stories from categories such as national, business, sports, technology, entertainment and miscellaneous. They can also read the full coverage by clicking on the link of the source provided at the end of each story. The company claims that its app has crossed the five million download mark on the Android platform. Inshorts is also available on iOS.
