Analysts say that this particular deal has been in the works for sometime and should not be considered as a template to comprehend the present scheme of things. “This deal is a little bit of an outlier because it has been in the works for the last six months. We shouldn’t draw a sense that things have suddenly become better in terms of funding. I think there’s some pressure on funding on the consumer tech side and the pressure is real,” says an analyst. The other two big cheques have been pocketed by Swiggy, which scored $700 million in January, and Byju’s, which announced a $800 million funding in early March.

Flow of funding though is expected to be selective, strong ideas will continue to be supported, say analysts. “The (VerSe Innovation) deal however, does show that large investors are ready to back creator-led economy platforms and content platforms. In fact, analysts at Bain & Company in a recent report said that emergent sectors like creator commerce and web3 or crypto-based investments will continue to see investor interest."

VerSe Innovation claims that DailyHunt, which offers content in 15 local languages, reaches over 350 million users every month. Josh has over 150 million monthly active users (MAU) which it says is the “best MAU (monthly active users) ratio in the industry of 49% and the highest retention.” The firm has also launched PublicVibe in December 2021, a hyper local video platform that provides local updates to users. It has a base of more than 5 million MAUs. “VerSe Innovation’s proprietary technology platform serves one out of every two internet users in the country across Josh, Dailyhunt coupled with PublicVibe,” the company said in a statement.

dailyhunt valuation

DailyHunt parent VerSe Innovation scores $805 mn in funding