Goldman Sachs pumps another $3 million into content aggregator Dailyhunt
DailyHunt, the local language content and news aggregation platform, has raised $2.98 million (Rs 21.15 crore at current exchange rates) from Goldman Sachs. The latest infusion is likely part of a larger ongoing funding round. The investment has been made by the New York-based investment banking firm through a Cayman Islands registered entity called Stonebridge 2019 LP.
Dailyhunt, owned by Bengaluru based Verse Innovation, raised the capital last month, according to the company’s latest filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
By TechCircle’s estimates, the sum was raised at a valuation of nearly $518 million (Rs 3670.34 crore at the exchange current rates).
In March this year, TechCircle had reported that Dailyhunt was raising $173 million (Rs 1,224 crore then) funding round from Goldman Sachs’ hedge fund, citing the company’s MCA filings. At the time, the company had already received $35.05 million (Rs 248 crore then) out of the committed $173 million. The latest infusion seems to be a part of the same round.
Email queries Virendra Gupta, Dailyhunt’s chief executive, on the latest infusion didn’t elicit responses at the time of publishing this report.
In May this year, Dailyhunt had raised $22 million (Rs 154.5 crore then) from Sofina SA, a Belgium-based holding company that invests directly and indirectly in firms across various sectors.
Dailyhunt
Dailyhunt was launched as Newshunt by former Nokia executives Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni in 2009, and sold to Ver Sé Innovation in 2012. It was rebranded as Dailyhunt in August 2015.
The platform counts on a proprietary algorithm to deliver personalised news content. The startup claims to have 80 million users who spend over six billion minutes on the platform each month. It offers news articles licenced from thousands of content partners and contributors in 14 languages. It provides original video content in Hindi and Telugu and a free live television streaming service with more than 130 channels across nine languages through strategic partnerships with Vuclip and YuppTV as well as firms in the over-the-top (OTT) video content space.
Dailyhunt's latest offering is Newzly, which is a news excerpt mobile application that provides users customised trending headlines in nine languages.
The company’s other investors include Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network.
In June, it acquired LocalPlay, a Bengaluru-based peer which focuses on the hyperlocal segment.