Dailyhunt parents raises $805 million led by CPPIB, valuation reaches $5 billion

Bangalore: Versace Innovations, parent firm of online news aggregator Dailyhunt and short-video platform Josh, said it has signed definitive documents and raised $805 million in a funding round led by existing investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

New investors such as Ontario Teachers Pension Fund, Luxor Capital and Sumeru Ventures and its existing backers such as Sofina Group, Bailey Gifford and others have also participated in the round.

The Bengaluru-based firm said the latest fundraising would raise its valuation to $5 billion after investments.

CPPIB has invested $425 million, contributing nearly half of the total capital raised by the company, which started life with the Newshunt portal in 2007.

VerSe Innovations was valued at around $3 billion in August last year after $450 million in funding and before investments by Google and Microsoft. The company has raised $1.5 billion in the past year, underscoring the capital-intensive nature of the industry.

While Dailyhunt’s core business of Versace generated $127 million in revenue in fiscal 2012, the highly competitive and cash-consuming short-video segment gained a significant following in February with the merger of ShareChat’s Moz and Times Internet’s MXTalkTalk. saw the consolidation. These players came to prominence in 2020 after India banned several Chinese apps, including the popular short-video app TikTok, owned by Bytedance. Moj, MX TakaTak, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are among the apps that compete with Josh. Times Internet is part of The Times of India Group which publishes The Economic Times.

Find stories that interest you

The company said Josh has 150 million monthly active users, of which 49% are daily active users. Dailyhunt serves more than 350 million users every month, it says.

In addition to Dailyhunt and Josh, Versace Innovations also owns PublicVibe, a hyper-local video platform.

Cofounder Virendra Gupta and former Facebook India managing director Umang Bedi, who have also been named as cofounders at the Bengaluru company, told ET in an interaction that they will continue to invest in the short-video business and will continue to invest through various models. Will leave commerce behind.

“This is the largest investment by CPPIB in an Indian startup and what makes it interesting is the time when companies in India and globally are finding it difficult to raise money and are getting down rounds,” Bedi said.

Where will the fund go?

Gupta and Bedi said they will deploy parts of the new capital to “deepen and broaden” their artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science capabilities for better user engagement, retention and monetization.

Verse is also looking to offer a Web3.0 experience across languages ​​on its platform, apart from trying out social commerce, live commerce and impact-led commerce. It plans to partner with leading e-commerce companies and move forward with the creator community.

Bedi said they are also aiming to create a monetization model for short videos. “It includes a purchasable commerce experience, influencer commerce, live commerce and a new Web3.0 platform experience for influencers, which is not only here but we will be happy to take it global,” he added.

The company is expected to formally announce its entry into commerce in the coming weeks. “The user experience should be good. When we do things, it has to go beyond announcing a pilot. This is why new avenues of monetization – through impact-led commerce – are being built in a very integrated way of short videos,” Gupta said.

Stay on top of technology and startup news that matters. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.

Originally published at Pen 18

congress: Congress president Sonia Gandhi appeals for unity; says road ahead challenging

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday appealed for unity in the beleaguered party, saying the road ahead would be more challenging. Gandhi’s statement at the Congress Parliamentary Party’s general body meeting reflected the leadership’s concern after those seeking change after another round of electoral defeat for the party.

“The road ahead is more challenging than ever… Unity is paramount at all levels of our vast organization.”

Originally published at Pen 18

bjp: PM Modi asks BJP MPs to highlight government’s social welfare schemes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed BJP MPs to spend the next fortnight after the budget session of Parliament in their respective constituencies and inform people about various welfare measures that will ensure social justice for the poor and vulnerable sections. .

Addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party on Tuesday, Modi said MPs should use the next 15 days after the session to reach out to the people. They should be equipped with facts and figures about the number of people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine along with the number of people who are likely to benefit from various welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala, Swachh Bharat.

The Prime Minister said that the aim of the government is to take these schemes to the last person in the queue. MPs should also share the highlights of the budget with the general public.

A BJP leader quoted Modi as saying, “The Prime Minister remembered that the people of western India still remember Lakh Banjara because he had built wells for the poor in this area. MPs should build ponds in their constituencies.” And for this MNREGA funds should also be used. , The MPs are also expected to hold regular district level meetings.

BJP president JP Nadda said the party would launch the “Social Justice Fortnight” program from April 7-20, a day after the foundation day celebrations. Under this program, BJP MPs and office bearers will give information about the efforts being made to ensure social justice through various schemes.

Originally published at Pen 18

jain: Enforcement Directorate attaches Rs 4.81 crore assets linked to Delhi Minister, Satyendar Jain

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi minister Satyendar Kumar Jain in connection with a money laundering probe.

The federal agency has attached immovable properties of five companies – Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Mangalayatan Projects Pvt Ltd and JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd and three persons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 2002 in case of disproportionate assets.

The agency said that during 2015-16, when Jain was a public servant, these companies “owned and controlled by him” received a total of 4.81 crore housing entries from shell companies, while Kolkata-based entry operators got access to hawala routes. was transferred through cash. Statement.

These amounts were used for outright purchase of land or for repayment of loans taken for purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi. “Accordingly, immovable properties worth `4.81 crore in the form of land belonging to the above companies/individuals are provisionally attached…”

The ED had launched a money laundering probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation in August 2017 on the basis of a criminal case registered against Jain and some others under sections 109 (abetment of a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and prevention of corruption. Work.

Jain is accused of setting up or buying several shell companies in Delhi during 2009-2011. He is also accused of laundering `16.39 crore in black money through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators in Kolkata during 2011-2016.

He then received the same amount in the form of cheques, allegedly through hawala operators, and used the money to buy agricultural land in the name of companies controlled by him in the vicinity of unorganized colonies over the past five years.

The CBI had registered another case in May 2018 against Jain and SK Srivastava, the then engineer-in-chief of PWD-Delhi, who had probed alleged irregularities in the recruitment of creative teams in PWD. The department reportedly hired 24 architects for a creative wing through an agency, which reportedly lacked any prior experience.

Originally published at Pen 18

US News: US blocks Russia’s access to dollars, heightening default risk

The United States has begun barring Russia from making loan payments using dollars held in US banks, a move designed to deplete its international currency reserves and potentially give Russia a Pushes towards its first foreign currency loan default in a century.

A Treasury Department spokesman said the action was taken on Monday. It was the same day that more than $500 million in Russian sovereign debt payments were paid off. The new sanctions, the spokesman said, allow Russia to choose between decimating remaining dollar reserves in Russia or using new revenues (for example from natural gas payments) to make bond payments to avoid defaulting on its debt. intended to force.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and sanctions were imposed, the Russian government has continued to make its foreign currency debt payments. Although it has shown a willingness to pay, it has been able to pay investors using US banks with the approval of the US government. Last month, the Treasury Department created an exemption from its sanctions that allowed Americans to accept loan payments from Russia until May 25 to avoid destabilizing the broader financial system.

On Monday, a $2 billion bond as well as a coupon payment of $84 million arrived. But last week, Russia bought back about three-quarters of the bonds maturing on Monday in exchange for the ruble. This was a relatively unusual move but reduced Russia’s dollar obligations, leaving about $552 million to be paid. Treasury action on Monday blocked these payments, but Russia has a 30-day grace period to complete it before the transaction is found to be in default.

Russia has confused many hopes that after the war broke out in Ukraine and the United States and Europe, barring access to a large portion of its foreign exchange reserves, after imposing sanctions on its central bank, it would face imminent default. was at risk. But Russia has continued to pay and has continued to replenish some of its reserves using money from energy exports.

A Treasury spokesman said the action this week would pose additional challenges to Russia’s financial system. The Russian government has already implemented capital controls restricting the flow of money in and out of the country.

This article is originally from . appeared in
the new York Times,

Originally published at Pen 18

Firstcry records Rs 216 crore profit for FY21

IPO-bound omnichannel baby care-focused firm FirstCry has reported a profit of Rs 215.94 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, documents filed by the company and sourced through Toffler show.

According to a senior company official, it is likely to double its profits for FY22, which will be reflected in the draft red herring prospectus, which the company is looking to file by the June quarter this year.

This comes a year after SoftBank-backed Unicorn reported a loss of Rs 190.8 crore for FY20. The startup entered the unicorn club in February 2020 with a $296 million Series E check from investors led by SoftBank. The company is now preparing for an initial public offering and has mandated investment banks Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and Morgan Stanley to manage the issue.

“It is probably the only company after Nayaka to have carved a niche in a category and turned profit. There is a lot of interest from investors,” said an investment banker.

The document shows that the Pune-based company’s consolidated revenue grew by over 140% from Rs 897 crore in FY20 to Rs 1,740 crore in FY21.

Started in September 2010, the decade old company has grown into a leading player in the Omnichannel Baby & Mother Care products segment. It acquired Mahindra Retail-owned BabyOA brand in 2015 in an all-stock deal for Rs 362 crore ($50 million). In the same year, cofounders Supam Maheshwari and Amitabh Saha spun off their logistics division, ExpressBiz, into a separate company.

Find stories that interest you

Today, Firstcry has close to 600 retail stores and has expanded to the UAE as well.

“Business in UAE has picked up and this will increase the profit numbers for FY22,” the official said.

The company’s expenses stood at Rs 1,645.3 crore in FY2011, as against Rs 1,088.1 crore in FY10. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or Ebitda margin stood at 10.5%.

Omnichannel players have seen their sales boom due to pandemic-induced online shopping among Indian consumers.

Stay on top of technology and startup news that matters. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.

Originally published at Pen 18

Emily Ratajkowski Named Superga Global Ambassador: Details, Photos – WWD – Pen 18

Superga has appointed Emily Ratajkowski as its latest global ambassador.

The model appears in the brand’s spring campaign, which was shot by Zoey Grossman at Milk Studios in Los Angeles in January. The shoot was styled by New York-based stylist Emma Morrison. The partnership also includes a Spring 2022 collaboration with the model-writer in which she created her own shoes with the label, replacing the original designs of the 2750 Classic and Alpina.

“I have been wearing the brand for years. I wear sneakers all the time because I live in New York City and I have a huge dog that I have to walk and now have a baby,” Ratajkowski told WWD. “So always sneakers. It’s always been a way for me to look fashionable while being practical.”

One of her favorite go-to Superga sneakers includes the 2750 Classic as well as other “simple, white, straight ones.”

Emily Ratajkowski for Superga.
Courtesy of Zoey Grossman/Superga

Experiencing pregnancy and now being a new mom, the model’s style hasn’t really evolved much, given that living in New York City already demands a more practical wardrobe.

“I find that I always need a little rest. One of the things I love about New York is that you leave the house and you want to feel like you can go anywhere and go all day.” can do anything,” Ratajkowski said. “What I love about Superga is that you can take them with you all day and you can dress them up or you can dress them up.”

The partnership seems immediate and natural for Ratajkowski, who has been a fan of the Italian brand.

“I am happy to be associated with a brand that I feel is very natural to me. And, of course, I have a real soft spot in my heart for Italy,” she said. “I go there almost every year. Am. So it’s really great for me to work with an Italian brand.”

In her modeling career so far, Ratajkowski has worked with Sports Illustrated, Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, Versace, DKNY, among many others. She has also starred in several films including “Gone Girl” and “Entourage”.

Last fall, Ratajkowski released a book of essays titled “My Body,” which became a New York Times bestseller.

Read more here:

Emily Ratajkowski talks new book with Lisa Taddeo at Tory Burch

Emily Ratajkowski announces pregnancy on Vogue cover

EXCLUSIVE: Emily Ratajkowski Joins Loops Beauty as Partner, Creative Director

Originally published at Pen 18