Lee Fixel’s VC firm ‘Addition’ leads $35 Mn round in Inshorts

Former Tiger Global executive Lee Fixel's new venture capital firm ‘Addition’ has led a $35 million funding round in news media startup Inshorts. Addition was launched in September 2019 in the US.

The round also saw participation from SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners, according to a company press statement.

For Inshorts, the latest funding round has come after almost after a three years gap. Previously, it had picked up $15 million from Tiger Global in August 2017. The Noida-based firm which publishes 60-word summaries on major news stories in the form of virtual placards, will utilize the fresh proceeds to push its newly launched location-based social network app - Public.

“We are thrilled to have this support from Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners in our journey towards building the world’s largest location based social network,” said Azhar Iqubal, Founder & CEO, Public App. 

Public enables people in top tier cities to record and share happenings around them and provide real-time local updates. Since its launch in January 2020, Public has garnered over 60 million downloads across Android and iOS, according to data sourced from Sensor Tower.

In July this year, Fixel had received $1.2 billion of total commitments from 211 investors for the VC fund. The Florida-based investor hung his boot at Tiger Global in March 2019 after a 13 years stint to start his own investment firm. 

While Inshorts is the first investment by the Fixel-owned investment firm in India, he had made over 40 investments in startups including Peloton, Spotify, SurveyMonkey, and Tencent Music, among others during his stint at New York-based hedge firm. 

After Fixel’s departure, Scott Scleifer took over the responsibility of private investments at Tiger Global. Under Shleifer, Tiger Global has continued to keep its aggressiveness alive when it comes to betting on Indian startups. It recently poured $100 million in Zomato and also led several mega rounds including SirionLabs, Innovaccer and InterviewBit in 2020.