VerSe Innovation acquires Vebbler, a community photo, video sharing platform

Vebbler was founded by Sahil Bhagat in 2013. The Bengaluru-based startup was initially backed by actors Dino Morea and Nikhil Chinapa.

Josh app (Google )

VerSe Innovation, the parent company of Dailyhunt and Josh, on Wednesday announced it had acquired Vebbler, a digital community photo and video sharing platform. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Following the acquisition, all team members of Vebbler absorbed into VerSe Innovation's team.

According to VerSe Innovation, the latest acquisition is part of its efforts to build India's largest digital media platform that “serves unmet content needs” of users using technology. 

“Leveraging Vebbler's camera and community will give Josh a powerful differentiator in the market and present millions of Josh users the additional opportunity to harness India's diverse creativity and talent,” the company said.

Vebbler was founded by Sahil Bhagat in 2013. The Bengaluru-based startup was initially backed by actors Dino Morea and Nikhil Chinapa. Vebbler was originally designed to deliver a private network to exchange photos and videos in real-time at events. The platform then evolved into an interest-based network in 2018.

“My vision with Vebbler was to build a video first social media platform out of India. Our use case, domain understanding, technology expertise is unique in the Indian market. In VerSe Innovation's vision, we find strategic synergies between Josh and Vebbler. This deal speaks volumes to the value and quality of our product. We are extremely excited to work together and inch closer to our shared vision of building a global product with Josh,” said Bhagat in a statement.

It is the second acquisition by VerSe Innovation in the last two weeks. The company in late February had announced the acquisition of Cognirel Technologies, a Bengaluru-based AI solutions provider.

The Dailyhunt and Josh parent recently acquired the coveted unicorn status in India. In the last three months, VerSe Innovation's Josh has garnered more than $200 million from investors such as Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, and Glade Brook Capital Partners, along with Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave (a unit of Falcon Edge Capital).

Josh, a short-video sharing network platform, has over 85 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 40 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 1.5+ billion video play per day, the company said.