Local language news aggregator platform Dailyhunt has secured $35.6 Mn (Rs 267.1 crore) from James Murdoch’s investment arm Lupa India. No other investor participated in the funding round, according to reports. The latest capital infusion is part of the ongoing series G round that allowed Dailyhunt to bag INR 180 crore barely one week ago.
Once the funding gets regulatory approval, Lupa India will hold nearly 5.7% in the Bengaluru based company. With contribution from James Murdoch, Dailyhunt has so far collected INR 485 crore in the ongoing series G round.
James Murdoch doesn’t need any introduction. He is a well-known media mogul and is a son of Rupert Murdoch, who himself is a popular media business tycoon. Until 2019, James Murdoch was the CEO of 21st Century Fox.
This is James Murdoch’s second investment in India, after having backed edtech startup Harappa Education only four months back.
As for Daily hunt, the back-to-back funding rounds will help in ramping up its operation and compete well against its competitors.
Founded in 2009 as Newshunt, the company has come a long way to emerge as one of the top players in the content aggregation space. The company changed its brand name from Newshunt to Dailyhunt in year 2015.
Its app aggregates news in several Indian languages including Gujarati, Marathi and Kannada. Apart from India, it also offers services in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and few countries in the African region.
With the growing penetration of smartphones and internet, Indian masses have developed an irresistible appetite to get important breaking news at the palm of their hand. Startups like Dailyhunt and its other worthy competitors are looking to fulfill this urge and in the process build a scalable business for themselves.
According to reports, Dailyhunt was also in funding talks with SoftBank. But given that SoftBank is currently beset with big problems, this funding is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
