Mumbai: Local language technology platform VerSe Innovation has raised $805 million in the latest funding rounds from marquee global investors Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), Luxor Capital, Sumeru Ventures and others. VerSe Innovation owns the family of ‘Bharat-focused’ apps namely Josh, Dailyhunt, and PublicVibe.
Existing investors Sofina Group, Baillie Gifford and others will also participate north of their pro-rata in this round resulting in VerSe Innovation’s valuation reaching ~$ five billion.
The fresh round of investment follows close on the heels of a $650 million+ fundraise from Siguler Guff, Carlyle Group, Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital via Alpha Wave Ventures, Glade Brook Capital, Google, and Microsoft and Qatar Investment Authority taking the total capital raised in the past year to ~$1.5 billion.
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.
VerSe plans on deepening as well as broadening its AI/ML and data science capabilities to further cement its leadership position across all user, engagement and retention metrics, drive deeper monetisation including influencers, e-commerce and live streaming and forays into Web 3.0 experiences 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.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to VerSe Innovation on the transaction.
“India’s digital content is experiencing phenomenal growth, and VerSe Innovation is well-positioned to be one of the leaders in the fast-growing short video and local language content space,” said CPP Investments MD and head of private equity Asia Frank Su. “This investment aligns with our approach of providing strategic capital to industry leaders in India’s technology sector. We look forward to supporting the next phase of VerSe Innovation’s growth journey, which we believe will deliver strong risk-adjusted returns for the CPP Fund.”
“We are pleased to make a significant investment in VerSe Innovation through our new Alternative Capital Solutions team, which offers flexible capital to high-quality public and private growth companies,” commented Ontario Teachers’ MD and global group head of high conviction equities Maggie Fanari. “We have been impressed by the company’s innovative local language offerings, market leadership and strong management team, and are excited to be partnering with them in this journey as Ontario Teachers’ continues to build out its portfolio in India.”
“We are privileged and honoured to have prominent and stellar long-term partners like CPP Investments, Ontario Teachers’, Luxor Capital and Sumeru Ventures on board with us,” said VerSe Innovation co-founders Virendra Gupta and Umang Bedi.
“This partnership will strengthen our ability and leadership to deliver on our vision to build the largest AI-powered local language content platform across a family of apps serving the next billion users. With a strategic focus on video content and building for India, we have seen explosive growth emerging from the next billion users coming out of regional India. This investment comes at a time when we’re on a path to further expand our offerings, monetisation models, deliver superlative Web 3.0 experiences for the globe and create an IPO scale business,” they added.
