When you’re in a nation, which is set to become world’s 2nd biggest by internet viewership — that too when just a third of the overall population is online, Digital Media ought to play a pivotal role. And investors have lately, but proactively started realising that.
ScoopWhoop, a popular online digital media startup backed by Bharti Softbank already and which thrives on listicle based readings, has today announced the raise of fresh $4 million in a funding round from Kalaari Capital, which the company will use to expand its video production unit ScoopWhoop Talkies.
The company is also planning to invest money in hiring editorial resources for different publications and also aims to set up a sales and native content team.
Launched in 2013, ScoopWhoop clocks around 20 million unique visitors, 70 million page views, 30 million social engagements and over 10 million video views per month. ScoopWhoop has been targeting younger segment of the population since beginning and has been quiet successful in doing so.
Earlier, the company had raised around $1.5 million from Ignite World, which was earlier known as Bharti SoftBank, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s SoftBank Corp.
Sattvik Mishra, co-founder and chief executive of ScoopWhoop Media, said,
In the last 12 months we have grown almost 300%. We’ve managed to put a great team together, across portals, that drives almost 20 million unique visitors monthly. And, with this funding we look forward to being the number one digital media company in India by 2017.
ScoopWhoop aims to gratify the needs of the millennial generation who relish entertainment and hard-core news in the same vein. We were the first ones to recognise this paradigm shift and created content customised for this target audience
Bala Srinivasa, Partner at Kalaari Capital, said,
ScoopWhoop is well on its way to becoming a highly influential new media company for India’s 200 million-plus internet and social media-savvy youth population. By combining strong editorial capabilities with technology and smart analytics, they are in a position to leverage the massive shift from traditional media to digital advertising.
Online news and media portals have started to get investor attention as a result of the rise in the consumption of online content. And Kalaari has been extremely proactive in investing in such companies. Earlier this month, POPxo, a digital media publication on women’s fashion, beauty and lifestyle, raised $2 million in funding led by IDG Ventures, Kalaari Capital and 500 start-ups.
About couple of months ago, YouthKiAwaaz raised Rs. 4 crore in angel funding from Quintillion Media, a digital media venture founded by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur. Kalaari is also an investor in YourStory, a story telling platform for young and budding entrpreneurs within the country.
