Dailyhunt in talks to acquire social network startup Koo

Media startup Dailyhunt is in superior levels of talks to amass the Bengaluru-headquartered social community Koo, two sources conversant in the matter informed me.

The potential deal beneath dialogue entails a share-swap settlement and might be finalized inside weeks, the sources added, requesting anonymity because the matter is personal.

The deliberation follows Koo, which has sought to become a Twitter rival, aggressively attempting to find new capital all through final yr. The social community, out there in India and Brazil, is betting on the concept that its strategy of supporting a number of native languages will assist the eponymous app resonate broadly with the bigger plenty.

Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawatka mentioned in September that the startup — which has raised over $60 million from traders together with Tiger World, Accel, 3One4 Capital, Mirae Asset and Blume — was looking to find a strategic partner with a “distribution energy” for its “subsequent part” of journey.

“From rising quickly to slicing down on progress and proving unit economics, inside 6 months of income experimentation, we took a 180 diploma flip and proved that it is a actual enterprise,” he wrote.

Dailyhunt, which was final valued at $5 billion, and Koo declined to remark.

VerSe Innovation, the dad or mum agency of Dailyhunt, reaches greater than 300 million customers in India by means of its information aggregator platform and short-video app Josh. It raised a funding round of $805 million in April 2022 from traders together with Canada Pension Plan Funding Board, Ontario Academics’ Pension Plan Board, Sofina Group and Baillie Gifford.

Following the publication of this story, Koo’s Bidawatka wrote in a LinkedIn publish:

Over the previous few months, we’ve got been speaking to a number of companions who may assist us obtain this.

Our accountability in direction of a wider group of stakeholders (customers, creators, VIPs, traders, coverage makers, media) forces us to not share something prematurely whereas we’d wish to say extra. Requesting your endurance until we will share extra concrete particulars of this partnership that can assist Koo take wings in an natural method and assist problem international rivals in a significant method.

Indian digital merchandise are being made to worldwide requirements and it’s time to create international manufacturers from India. As everybody is aware of, the startup ecosystem globally has witnessed a funding crunch with out which Koo would have been on its strategy to fast worldwide market growth.