Matrix-backed VerSe Innovation raises $450M

12th August, 2021. Bengaluru: VerSe Innovation, India's biggest local language technology platform, today announced it has raised & signed definitive documents for $450M in a Series I funding round from marquee global investors Siguler Guff, Baillie Gifford, affiliates of Carlyle Asia Partners Growth II and others. Existing investors Sofina Group, Qatar Investment Authority and BCap also participated in this round. The investment follows close on the heels of a $200M+ fund raise from Falcon Edge Capital via Alpha Wave Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Google, Microsoft and QIA which concluded in February 2021, taking the total capital raise in the first half of 2021 to over $650M.

The investment will be focused on strengthening the company's leadership position as the largest, fastest growing local language AI driven content platform in the country. Herein, VerSe plans on both deepening and broadening its AI/ML and data science capabilities to further widen its leadership position across all user, engagement & retention metrics, drive further on monetization including e-commerce & live streaming and further cement its clear market leadership across its local language creator base of over 50 million creators as well as its local language content ecosystem which experiences over 80 billion video plays per month.

VerSe Innovation's proprietary technology platform serves one out of every two internet users in the country across '˜Josh', India's largest short video platform and '˜Dailyhunt', India's largest local language content platform. Josh is the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India with over 115+ million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 56+ million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and the best DAU/MAU ratio in the industry of 49%. Josh represents a confluence of India's top 200+ best creators, the 15 biggest music labels, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics. Dailyhunt serves over 300 million+ users every month offering content artifacts every day in 14 languages from a licensed creator ecosystem of over 100,000 content partners and individual content creators.

VerSe Innovation, with its family of apps focused on Bharat, became the first unicorn in tech for local languages and counts Matrix Partners India, Goldman Sachs, Falcon Edge Capital, Sequoia Capital India, Lupa Systems, IIFL, Bay Capital, Edelweiss and Omidyar Network, among others as existing investors. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to VerSe Innovation on the transaction.

This solid business foundation and capital infusion now sets the company on a path of rapid growth, as it explores expansion of its family of apps strategy and expanding across other international geographies to extend its broad based tech platforms in serving similar unmet content needs of local language audiences globally.

Virendra Gupta Founder, Dailyhunt & Umang Bedi, Co-founder, Dailyhunt, said, "With a strategic focus on video content & building for Bharat, we have seen strong traction emerging from the next billion users coming out of regional India.This investment comes at a time when we're on path to further expand into newer geographies and widen our family of apps to serve audiences at a global level. We're excited to partner with Sigular Guff, Baillie Gifford and Carlyle as we move into the next phase of growth!'

Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India, commented, "We're privileged to be early partners with Viru and Umang on this growth journey. The company's accelerated growth over the last 24 months has positioned them as the category leaders in the digital local language content space in India with both Dailyhunt and Josh. We're excited to be on this journey and welcome Sigular Guff, Baillie Gifford & Carlyle to the partnership.'

About VerSe Innovation:
At the core of VerSe Innovation, is the idea that technology can help bridge the digital divide. Since its inception, VerSe has risen to the challenge of serving the unmet content needs of millions of consumers using technology. Its unique artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning technologies enables personalised content to be delivered to millions of users based on their consumption preferences. Today VerSe Innovation's proprietary technology platform powers 300 million + users to consume content in their local language on Dailyhunt. Its technology also powers India's #1 and most engaging short-video app Josh.

About Matrix Partners India:
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with approximately $1 billion under management. Founded in 2006, the firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early, and early growth stages. Matrix India has invested in several market-leading companies such as Ola (mobility), Razorpay (payments), OfBusiness (credit led B2B marketplace), Five Star Business Finance (SME lending), Ola Electric (electric vehicles), Stanza Living (tech-enabled student housing platform), OneCard (mobile-first credit card), Country Delight (D2C dairy & fresh foods brand), DealShare (social commerce platform), Jupiter (consumer Neobank), Mswipe (mobile POS), and Zupee (leading skill-based gaming app) among others. Matrix India has advisory offices in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China, and India, with approximately $5 billion under management. Further information is available at www.matrixpartners.in. To know more about our investment philosophy & ideologies, check out the #MatrixMoments podcast series.