DailyHunt Parent VerSe Appoints Prakashan Manikoth As Group CFO

SUMMARY

Prakahan Manikoth will lead the global finance function with a focus on strategic financial planning, investor relations, M&A, capital allocation, and long-term business strategy

VerSe said it is gearing up for its IPO, and Manikoth will lead the company’s IPO readiness efforts, strengthening its financial discipline, transparency in reporting, and internal controls

VerSe claimed that its operating revenue zoomed 88% to INR 1,930 Cr in FY25, while EBITDA burn reduced by 20%

DailyHunt and Josh parent VerSe Innovation has roped in former SaaS unicorn LeadSquared’s Prakashan Manikoth as its group chief financial officer (CFO).

In his new role, Manikoth will lead VerSe’s global finance function with a focus on strategic financial planning, investor relations, merger and acquisition, capital allocation, and long-term business strategy.

“He will be instrumental in driving finance and process transformation, strengthening risk, compliance, and governance frameworks, and embedding a gold standard of corporate governance,” the company said in a statement.

Manikoth is a CA with a professional experience of 25 years. He was the CFO at LeadSquared for 4 years, starting 2021. Prior to that, he was associated with Wipro for more than 9 years, serving across different roles. He also worked with TCS and Tata Teleservices earlier.

VerSe said it is also gearing up for its IPO. “Prakashan will lead the company’s IPO readiness efforts, strengthening its financial discipline, transparency in reporting, and internal controls,” the statement added.

Last month, VerSe claimed that its operating revenue zoomed 88% to INR 1,930 Cr in FY25 from INR 1,029 Cr in the previous fiscal year. It also said that its EBITDA burn, excluding non-cash expenses, reduced 20% YoY to a loss of INR 738 Cr in FY25, led by product innovation, AI-powered automation, fiscal prudence, and revenue growth.

In July this year, Inc42 reported that VerSe was betting on AI-first adtech and subscription-led business to turn around its fortune.

Founded in 2007 by Virendra Gupta and Shailendra Sharma, VerSe runs aggregator platform DailyHunt and short video platform Josh. Umang Bedi joined the company as a cofounder in 2018.

The company has struggled to achieve profitability. VerSe posted a net loss of INR INR 814.8 Cr in FY24 on an operating revenue of INR 954.7 Cr.

However, the company claimed last month that it expects to achieve group-level breakeven and profitability in the second half of FY26.

Notably, VerSe’s auditor Deloitte flagged multiple issues in VerSe’s financial controls, including vendor selection, revenue recognition, virtual asset handling, and IT system management in its financial report for FY24. However, VerSe said that there were no material lapses.

“The financials are true and fair with a clean report. The controls within the company were identified as weak by Deloitte, however, it is confirmed that these control weaknesses have no impact on the company’s consolidated financial statements,” VerSe cofounder Bedi told Inc42 in April.

As such, Manikoth will also look at strengthening the compliance framework at VerSe.