VerSe Innovation Secures Additional Funding

VerSe Innovation, the company behind the widely-used news and entertainment platform Dailyhunt and the short-video application Josh, announced on Monday that it has successfully raised over $100 million in a Series H funding round.

This investment was provided by Qatar Investment Authority and Glade Brook Capital Partners.

The latest funding builds upon a previous investment exceeding $100 million secured in December of the prior year from Google, AlphaWave, and Microsoft.

Achieving Unicorn Status and Total Funding

That earlier investment, also part of the Series H round, propelled Dailyhunt to unicorn status, achieving a valuation of $1 billion or more. To date, the startup has accumulated approximately $430 million in funding.

Dailyhunt's Extensive Reach

Dailyhunt, co-led by Virendra Gupta and former Facebook India head Umang Bedi, is a prominent news and entertainment application.

It currently serves over 285 million users daily across 14 different Indian languages. Its significant presence within India, the world’s second-largest internet market, contributed to Twitter’s recent partnership to integrate Moments into Dailyhunt.

Josh's Emergence in the Short-Video Landscape

VerSe Innovation ventured into the realm of short-form video content last year with the launch of Josh.

This expansion followed the ban of TikTok in New Delhi, creating an opportunity for alternative platforms offering similar content. Numerous companies, including MX Player and ShareChat, have also entered this competitive market.

Competition in the Indian Short-Video Market

Major players like Facebook, with Instagram Reels, and YouTube, with Shorts, have also launched competing platforms in India.

YouTube Shorts is already attracting over 3.5 billion daily views within the country, and with over 450 million users in India, YouTube is rapidly approaching WhatsApp’s leading market position.

Josh's Growth and User Engagement

Josh has quickly established itself as a leading contender in the short-video space.

The platform boasts over 85 million monthly active users, with 40 million engaging with the app on a daily basis. Furthermore, Josh records more than 1.5 billion video views each day.

Future Expansion Plans

The company is now focusing on expanding into new content categories.

Similar to its approach with Dailyhunt and Josh, VerSe Innovation intends to target users in smaller cities and towns, with the ultimate goal of replicating this success in international markets.

India's Growing Internet Economy

Analysts at Citi predict that India’s internet economy will reach a value of $639 billion by 2030.

A recent report from UBS analysts indicates that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated digital adoption and increased users’ willingness to engage in online transactions.

Josh's Competitive Advantages

According to the startup, “Josh represents a confluence of India’s top 200+ best creators, the 10 biggest music labels, 15+ million UGC creators, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics.”

The company also states that Josh has consistently been highly rated as a leading Indian short-video application on the Play Store.

Allocation of New Capital

The newly acquired capital will be used to enhance the platform’s content offerings in local languages.

Furthermore, VerSe Innovation plans to expand its creator ecosystem and invest in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology infrastructure.