Indian news app DailyHunt acquires digital newsstand Magzter

VerSe Innovation, the parent company of the Indian news app Dailyhunt, has acquired the New York-based digital newsstand Magzter.

The Bengaluru-based start-up has completed the full acquisition of Magzter which was previously backed by Singapore Press Holdings, TechCrunch reported on Thursday.

However, financial details of the deal are not yet disclosed.

VerSe Co-founder Umang Bedi described the acquisition as VerSe's "largest" to date and confirmed that Magzter will persist as a separate service in an interaction with TC.

He said that Magzter has found a distribution and technology partner in VerSe, marking a significant milestone for both entities.

With over 1 million paying subscribers in India and a global user base of 87 million, Magzter operates on an all-you-can-consume model with annual subscription fees ranging from $20 to $30.

It collaborates with numerous major publishers, featuring titles like The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, Vogue, and numerous broadsheets and tabloids on its app.

DailyHunt aims to introduce a personalised news feed within Magzter, selecting articles and stories from its wide range of magazine titles. The Indian company also plans to unveil Dailyhunt Premium this year, offering an ad-free experience along with Magzter's catalog.

Magzter founders Girish Ramdas and Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan said in a joint statement, "This partnership opens up new avenues for delivering high-quality content experiences to users across India, further strengthening our goal of providing unparalleled digital reading experiences to our readers."

VerSe, which also runs the short-video app Josh, is steadily enhancing its financial performance and anticipates achieving EBITDA profitability across the group by next year, according to Bedi.

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