Inshorts raises $60 Mn in a new round led by Vy Capital

News aggregator Inshorts, which also operates location-based social media platform Public, has secured $60 million in a funding round led by Vy Capital with participation from existing investors. 

The fresh fund has come less than four months since its last fundraise of $41.3 million for its Public app in March. With this, the company has raised $140 million in the past one year from investors including Lee Fixel’s Addition, Tiger Global, SIG, A91 and Tanglin Venture Partners.

The company did not disclose its valuation in this round.

The proceeds will help the company to ramp up the reach of its Public app to more audiences, said the company in a press statement.

Public, which is accessible in Hindi and over a dozen vernacular languages, gives information on traffic, electricity, jobs and weather in your locality. Launched in April 2019, Public targets users in smaller towns and cities where people can record events taking place around them through short videos.

According to Sensor Tower data, the Public app has amassed around 114 million downloads in the past 15 months.

Since the ban on TikTok and other China-linked apps in May 2020, short video entertainment and news aggregator platforms have been gathering immense attention from the investor community. According to Fintrackr’s data, such apps have raised over $1 billion in the past year.

Dailyhunt, which is a direct competitor to Inshorts in the news aggregation space, had also picked up $200 million in two back to back rounds in December 2020 and February 2021.

News aggregation was the core business for DailyHunt and Inshorts until last year. However, their new business propositions - short video - have been the anchors for their new fundraise. Google-backed DailyHunt had forayed into the short video entertainment space with Josh whereas Inshorts has been exploring opportunities in location-based social media play with Public.