[Funding alert] News and content app Dailyhunt raises Rs 20 Cr from Stonebridge

Bengaluru-based Dailyhunt, a news and local language content platform, has raised Rs 20.55 crore as part of its Series F funding round from Cayman Islands-based Stonebridge, according to RoC filings accessed by YourStory.

As per the filings, the company has issued 17,211 Series F preference shares to Stonebridge LP and Stonebridge Offshore Holdings LP on July 29 at a premium amount of Rs 11,912.07 per share.

Owned and operated by Verse Innovation Pvt Ltd, the firm announced its Series F round in May this year when is secured $22 million (Rs 154.5 crore) from Belgium-based Sofina. 

In June 2019, Dailyhunt acquired LocalPlay, a hyperlocal video content and news content application, to boost its presence in Tier II & III geographies. 

At present, Dailyhunt claims to offer more than 250,000 fresh pieces of news and content articles every day in 14 languages, licensed from over 1,300 publication partners.

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The Dailyhunt group boasts of having 252 million monthly active users, and the Dailyhunt platform has 188 million monthly active users. The time spent by a daily active user is 24 minutes per day, consuming over 19 billion page views of content and 2.4 billion video views per month.

Its machine learning and deep learning technologies enable curation of content and tracks user preferences to deliver real-time, personalised content and notifications. The Dailyhunt app is available on Android, iOS and Windows platforms, and the mobile web as well.

Since inception, Dailyhunt has raised close to $150 million from investors like Sequoia Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, Omidyar Networks, and Matrix Partners.

Dailyhunt also plans to reach 600 districts across the country from its current presence in 400 - India has a total of 725 districts.

“For the next 10 years, we are going to be all about Bharat or India that does not speak English to take to consumption in a big way with smartphones,” said Virendra Gupta, Founder, Dailyhunt, in a recent conversation with YourStory.  

At some point in the near future, the company plans to revive content commerce, and with the acquisition of LocalPlay, it believes it can power local videos to drive local advertising. 

The company competes with the likes of InShorts, Glance, and NewsDog among others.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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