Reliance invests Rs 5 Cr in text-based video media startup NEWJ

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (RIIHL), has invested Rs 5 crore in New Emerging World of Journalism (NEWJ), an early-stage startup that curates and produces video content for smartphone users.

In November 2018, RIHL had invested Rs 1.03 crore in NEWJ for an undisclosed equity stake.

The Mumbai-based firm has raised the fresh funds for its unsecured business operations by issuing 625 CCDS of face value Rs 80,000 to existing shareholders of the company, reveals RoC filing with MCA.

For the unaware, NEWJ was founded by Shalabh and Deeksha Upadhyay, children of Umesh Upadhyay, president and director media at RIL.

Following the investment, RIHL will hold around 30,001 equity shares while Shalabh will have 9,999 equity shares in the company.

Video content market has a massive opportunity for innovative visual storytelling in India and this 20-months-old startup has grabbed this opportunity by producing and curating content for social and digital platforms - Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp.

Since its inception, NEWJ has received decent traction and engagement on text-based videos via social network, especially Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

NEWJ covers an array of informative content related to politics, trends, history, arts, business, sports, Information Technology, culture, lifestyle, science, space and defence.

Given that cheap internet, especially Jio, has led to a rapid rise in consumption of content in India, back to back investments from RIL will provide enough power to the company to grow and scale.

This would be overall seventh such deal for RIL in the past one and half year. Previously, it acquired controlling stakes in Embibe, EasyGov, Reverie Technology, Sankhya Sutra Labs, Haptik, and most recently Fynd.