Sequoia, Omidyar And Renu Sehgal Trust Invest $3.45 Mn In Dailyhunt

Bengaluru-based news and ebooks mobile app, Dailyhunt, has raised $3.45 Mn (INR 24.6 Cr) in a Series E2 funding round from Omidyar Network, Sequoia Capital and the Renu Sehgal Trust.

According to a Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings dated December 21, 2018 accessed by Inc42, the company issued:

• 8,055 preference shares to Omidyar Network
• 7,987 preference shares to Sequoia Capital India Investments IV
• 6,785 preference shares and 100 equity shares to Renu Sehgal Trust

A paper.vc report added that the investment is a part of a $15 Mn (INR 106.7 Cr) private placement offer that appears to be part of a larger Series E2 funding round. Falcon Edge and Matrix are also expected to participate in this fundraise, the report said.

Launched in 2009 by Nokia employees Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni, NewsHunt was acquired by Verse in 2012. In August 2015 NewsHunt rebranded itself as DailyHunt.

Currently, Dailyhunt has grown into a news and local language content application with over 155 Mn app installs offering 100K news articles in 14 languages licensed from over 800 publication partners every day. The group claims that every month has more than 50 Mn users spend over six billion minutes on the app.

The company has raised more than $122.3 Mn (INR 870 Cr) in series of investments from investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network, and Darby Overseas Investments.

Here’s a look at what is happening with the company in the past year:

• In January 2018, the company launched its news-in-brief app, Newzly, for android users, following Dailyhunt Lite (November 2017)
• It has also partnered with Vuclip and YuppTV to offer original videos and Live TV on its platform
• The company claims to have an annual revenue rate of about $15 Mn (INR 100 Cr)
• Chinese conglomerate Alibaba was looking to acquire a 10-12% minority stake in Dailyhunt at a proposed valuation of $500 Mn

Media And Entertainment: The Game Changer

Inc42 in its Annual Tech Startup Funding Report 2018 said that media and entertainment startups raised $726 Mn in 59 funding deals in 2018, which was a 185.27% increase from the previous year.

The report is a testament to the performance of the sector in the year, with several happenings spicing up the space. Vernacular is the new flavour of the town and continues to engaged leading players and newbies alike.

Interestingly, global players like Tencent have been making several bets on social media platforms. We also have Xiaomi which has continued its bet on content aggregators with ShareChat and Samosa Labs.

We also have several Indian startups like Inshorts, PIPES, the GSF backed Newsbytes, Way2News, and The Quint among others.

Going forward, the Inc42 funding report noted that news aggregators in demand such as Inshorts and DailyHunt recorded a combined total of 55 Mn in app downloads. The report further expects the rise of vernacular social networks and news platforms expected as Sharechat and Roposo continue to attract big numbers in funding.

A report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said that the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry would nearly double in size to $123 Bn (INR 8 Tn)  by 2022, clocking 11-12% CAGR between 2016 and 2022.