Desi TikTok Variant Will get Google, Microsoft Backing In $100 Million Investment
VerSe Innovation that owns Josh, stated it’s valued at greater than $1 billion (Representational)
Bengaluru:
The mum or dad of a TikTok copycat from India has raised greater than $100 million from buyers together with Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft, months after the Chinese language-owned short-video app used to be banned within the nation.
The app, Josh, is one in every of a number of home-grown short-video platforms that experience sprung up since India blocked the wildly common TikTok in June amidst a border disaster with China, attracting international investor hobby in programs filling the space.
Bengaluru-based VerSe Innovation, which owns Josh, is valued at greater than $1 billion following the funding, it stated in a remark.
AlphaWave, part of international asset supervisor Falcon Edge Capital, additionally invested in VerSe, as did present buyers Sofina Team and Lupa Programs, VerSe stated, including that it might use the finances to scale up Josh.
VerSe additionally owns information and content material platform Dailyhunt, which gives content material in more than one Indian languages.
In September, Indian content-sharing platform ShareChat raised $40 million from buyers together with Twitter Inc and Lightspeed Ventures, so that you could pressure enlargement for its new short-video app Moj.
Each Josh and Moj were put in on greater than 50 million units every, in step with information from Google’s Play Retailer.
Google additionally one by one introduced the funding in VerSe, including it had additionally invested in cell promoting generation company InMobi, which runs lock-screen content material app Look and short-video app Roposo.
Google, which had put aside $10 billion for virtual investments in India, didn’t supply any monetary main points for the investments.
