Lee Fixel's Addition backs India news aggregation app
Inshorts, an Indian news aggregation app, has raised $35 million in funding led by Addition, an investment firm launched by Lee Fixel, who was previously involved in Tiger Global Management’s India deals.
SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners also took part in the round, The Economic Times reported, citing Azhar Iqubal, co-founder and CEO of Inshorts. Tanglin was established by Ravi Venkatesh and Edwina Yeo, both former Tiger Global executives based in Asia.
According to AVCJ Research’s records, Inshorts previously received three rounds of funding – amounting to nearly $30 million – between 2015 and 2017. Tiger Global participated in the first alongside Rebright Partners and provided the subsequent two on its own. Fixel departed Tiger Global in June 2019 after 13 years with the firm.
Founded in 2013, Inshorts provides news and entertainment information, delivering its stories in 60 words or less. The company has an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that builds user profiles and curates content accordingly.
Last year, Inshorts launched Public, a location-based social network that also serves as a marketing platform for small-scale retailers, recruiters, and other service providers. It is available in multiple Indian languages. Iqubal said that Public had accumulated more than 50 million monthly active users, with more than one million videos uploaded to the platform every month.
Local short video apps have gained traction in India this year after the government banned TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance amid souring relations between the two countries. ShareChat, a social networking platform that focuses on Indian vernacular languages, recently raised $40 million that will go towards Moj, its short video platform. Inshorts will plow its new funding into Public.
Inshorts – which claims to be profitable – competes in the news aggregation space with the likes of DailyHunt and NewsDog. DailyHunt has also launched a social video platform. ByteDance led the company's Series D in 2016.
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.