VerSe Innovation, parent of local language news aggregators Dailyhunt and short-form video app Josh, has raised $ 450 million from global marquee investors, including Siguler Guff, Baillie Gifford, affiliates of Carlyle Asia Partners Growth II and others. With this, VerSe Innovation’s valuation stands at nearly $ 3 billion, said a person familiar with the discussions, requesting anonymity. Existing investors Sofina Group, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and BCap also participated in the round that was part of their new Series I fundraiser. The round also provided secondary outlets to employees and early stage investors of the company, said the person quoted above. This is the third major fundraiser for VerSe Innovation in nine months, which has raised more than $ 650 million in equity funding since December last year. As part of its previous Series H round, which concluded in February 2021, the Dailyhunt parent had raised more than $ 200 million from companies like Falcon Edge Capital through Alpha Wave Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Google, Microsoft and QIA. The current round was oversubscribed almost 2 times, as the company had set out to raise approximately $ 250 million as part of this round, after it witnessed investor interest in its previous fundraiser, the person said. Avendus Capital was the financial advisor to VerSe Innovation on the transaction. According to VerSe, the funds will be used to consolidate its leadership position in the content space, as well as to deepen and expand its artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science capabilities. It will also enhance the monetization capabilities on its platform through the introduction of e-commerce and live streaming.

VerSe Innovation, parent of local language news aggregators Dailyhunt and short-form video app Josh, has raised $ 450 million from global marquee investors, including Siguler Guff, Baillie Gifford, affiliates of Carlyle Asia Partners Growth II and others.

With this, VerSe Innovation’s valuation stands at nearly $ 3 billion, said a person familiar with the discussions, requesting anonymity.

Existing investors Sofina Group, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and BCap also participated in the round that was part of their new Series I fundraiser. The round also provided secondary outlets to employees and early stage investors of the company, said the person quoted above.

This is the third major fundraiser for VerSe Innovation in nine months, which has raised more than $ 650 million in equity funding since December last year. As part of its previous Series H round, which concluded in February 2021, the Dailyhunt parent had raised more than $ 200 million from companies like Falcon Edge Capital through Alpha Wave Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Google, Microsoft and QIA.

The current round was oversubscribed almost 2 times, as the company had set out to raise approximately $ 250 million as part of this round, after it witnessed investor interest in its previous fundraiser, the person said.

Avendus Capital was the financial advisor to VerSe Innovation on the transaction.

According to VerSe, the funds will be used to consolidate its leadership position in the content space, as well as to deepen and expand its artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science capabilities.

It will also enhance the monetization capabilities on its platform through the introduction of e-commerce and live streaming.