VerSe Innovation raises more than $100 million in Series H funding

VerSe Innovation, the parent company of Dailyhunt and Josh, on Monday said it has raised more than $100 million in a Series H funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar and Glade Brook Capital Partners. Canaan Valley Capital and existing investor Sofina Group also participated in this round.

Following the funding, VerSe Innovation plans to expand its family apps focused on Indian users. The company also aims to use the capital to scale up its Josh short video sharing platform. The scaling up efforts will include increasing local language content offerings, development content creators ecosystem, AI and ML improvements, and create opportunities for the Indian talent, the company said.

According to VerSe Innovation, Josh has over 85 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 40 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 1.5+ billion video play per day. Its Dailyhunt has more than 300 million users and is one of the top vernacular content platforms.

The latest funding comes days after the company raised more than $100 million from investors such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft. The Bengaluru-based Verse Innovation is valued more than $1 billion, acquiring the coveted unicorn status.

“Debuting as the first unicorn in tech for local languages last year, VerSe Innovation has seen tremendous investor interest in Josh since its launch. With this new infusion of capital, the company is adding QIA and Glade Brook Capital Partners to a stellar line up of existing blue-chip investors that include Google, Microsoft, AlphaWave, Goldman Sachs, Sofina Group, Lupa Systems, Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital and Omidyar Network, among others. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to VerSe Innovation on the transaction,” said the company.

Josh and several Indian internet startups are gaining huge traction in the country following the ban on TikTok. These startups are also attracting investors from the world. Just last month Bolo Indya raised $400,000 in funding led by Inflection Point Ventures. Existing investors from Eagle10 Ventures also participated in the round. Chingari, Moj (ShareChat), and MX TakaTak have also expanded in the last few months.