The company said the latest investment has now set the company on a path of rapid growth.
Qatar Investment Authority was among several to raise a $100 million investment for Local language tech platform VerSe Innovation, the parent company of DailyHunt which runs the short video app Josh.
Glade Brook Capital Partners and other companies also invested into the social media app, which has been described as India’s alternative to TikTok.
“This will include the augmentation of local language content offerings, the development of its content creator ecosystem, innovation in AI and ML and more importantly, creation of opportunity for India’s vast talent pool,” Josh said.
The investment came shortly after the tech platform raised another $100 million from Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave in December 2020.
Josh is DailyHunt’s take on TikTok – which gained phenomenal popularity in recent years for providing a platform for trendy short videos. Josh emerged shortly after India imposed a ban on China’s TikTok, seizing an opportunity amid a vacuum.
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Its almost immediate success as a startup was reflected when it became the first unicorn in the local languages tech space, hitting a value of over $1 billion.
According to VerSe Innovation, Josh is the “fastest growing and most engaged short-video app” in India, which currently has over 85 million monthly active users, 40 million daily active users and over 1.5 billion video plays per day.
Josh is also backed by Goldman Sachs, Lupa Systems, Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital and Omidyar Network, among others.
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