Bengaluru: Local language technology platform VerSe Innovation has raised over $100 million in a Series H funding round led by global investors Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar and Glade Brook Capital Partners. Canaan Valley Capital and existing investor Sofina Group also participated in this round. The multi-million-dollar investment follows close on the heels of over $100 million fundraise from Google, Microsoft and AlphaWave in last December.
Debuting as the first unicorn in tech for local languages last year, VerSe Innovation has seen tremendous investor interest in Josh since its launch.
With this new infusion of capital, the Company is adding QIA and Glade Brook Capital Partners to a stellar line up of existing blue-chip investors that include Google, Microsoft, AlphaWave, Goldman Sachs, Sofina Group, Lupa Systems, Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital and Omidyar Network, among others. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to VerSe Innovation on the transaction.
The tech platform is in the process of expanding its family of apps through its made-in-India, short-video app ‘Josh’ available in 12 Indian languages. According to the company, it will use the capital in scaling up the ‘Josh’. This will include the augmentation of local language content offerings, the development of its content creator ecosystem, innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and more importantly, creation of opportunity for India’s vast talent pool.
Josh is one of the leading and fastest-growing short video apps with over 85 million monthly active users (MAUs), 40 million daily active users (DAUs) and over 1.5 billion video plays per day, said the company.
VerSe Innovation’s proprietary technology platform also powers various technology solutions including over 300 million users on Dailyhunt to consume content in their local language. Dailyhunt is India’s #1 vernacular content platform offering content in 14 languages.