VerSe Innovation, the company behind short video platform Josh, raises another $100 million

Virendra Gupta, Founder, VerSe Innovation

After achieving the status of a unicorn, VerSe Innovation, the company behind the short video platform, Josh and news aggregator DailyHunt, has raised another $100 million.

In another round of funding, the Bengaluru-based company secured funding from Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, along with Glade Brook Capital Partners, as per media reports.

The company secured the unicorn status in December when it raised $100 million from tech giants Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave, taking its valuation to more than $1 billion.

The company's focus remains on its short video platform, Josh, which supports 12 languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Bangla, Oriya, Punjabi, and Bhojpuri.

DailyHunt is also focused on aggregating local language content from newspapers and other websites. The platform also provides free TV streaming in multiple local languages.

Launched in July 2020, the company claims that Josh has already crossed over 50 million downloads and is "for-Bharat, by Bharat."

The latest funds will be utilised" for the augmentation of local language content offerings, the development of its content creator ecosystem, innovation in AI and ML and more importantly, creation of opportunity for India’s vast talent pool," the company told Business Insider.

Following the ban on Chinese company ByteDance's TikTok, other homegrown video platforms took off including MX Taka Tak and a dozen others which are scrambling to attract Tik Tok users to its platforms.