Subscription-Based News Company The Ken Raises $1.5 Mn

Bengaluru-based subscription-only business news website The Ken has raised $1.5 Mn Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network.

The funding round also saw participation from Yuj Kutumb, the Family Foundation headed by Sid Yog, the Founder and Managing Partner of The Xander Group Inc., and a mix of existing and new angel investors.

Reportedly, the company will use the fresh capital for fresh hiring and boosting growth.

The investment was led by Bharath Visweswariah, who leads a media-focussed team out of Omidyar Network’s Bengaluru office.

Prior to this, the company has raised $650.46K (INR 4.46 Cr) from around 15 angel investors including Aprameya Radhakrishna, Deepak Natraj, Girish Mathrubhootham, Mahesh Murthy, Pallav Nadhani, Pavan Ongole, Sandeep Mathur, Shan Krishnasamy, Shanmugam Nagarajan, V Balakrishnan, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

In July 2016, The Ken was founded by veteran journalists Seema Singh, Rohin Dharmakumar, Ashish Mishra and Sumanth Raghavendra. It provides one original narrative story every day (behind a paywall) for five days in a week. At the same time, it also publishes a free story every week on Wednesday and Sunday.

So far, the company claims to have published 450 original and deeply-reported stories.

In the digital media space, The Ken is one of the many media startups focussed on business and startups along with YourStory, Inc42, Factor Daily, Next Big What, VCCircle, TechStory and others.

The global news industry saw the wave of subscription-based models with New York Times leading the baton of change in the age-old-newspaper media generation.

In the Indian media space, subscription-model is significantly getting traction with players like Business Standard and Times of India are testing subscription-led model.

The country’s media and entertainment (M&E) sector are poised to touch $45.1 Bn by 2021, expanding at a CAGR of over 10.5%. A PwC report revealed that the segment has undergone substantial progress since 2016 when its valuation stood at $27.3 Bn.

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