Verse Innovation, India’s largest local language technology platform, has acquired Magzter, a global digital news stand with a library of 8,500+ premium magazines and newspapers.
This move marks Dailyhunt’s strategic push into premium content and signifies a stage in Verse Innovation’s journey of growth.
Launched as Dailyhunt Premium, this subscription-based offering will provide users access to premium content from international publishers in over 60 languages including English, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and more.
This includes globally acclaimed publications such as Time, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Fortune, The Economist, Forbes, Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Maxim, Elle, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Bazaar among others across their respective India and international editions.
This expansion addresses the demand for high-quality premium content, particularly catering to the discerning experience of India’s upper-middle-class demographic.
The acquisition strengthen’s Dailyhunt’s position as the largest platform for news and infotainment in the country, serving content in key international and regional languages.
It also marks the expansion of the Dailyhunt’s revenue model, expanding from pure advertising to include a blend of subscription-based revenue streams.
Virendra Gupta and Umang Bedi, Co-founders, VerSe Innovation, said, “Magzter is a perfect fit for our ecosystem. The acquisition aligns seamlessly with our growth trajectory and enhances our ability to deliver premium content experiences to our ever-expanding user base. We will keep strengthening our capabilities and spreading our wings, leading the way in India’s digital content space.”
Girish Ramdas and Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan, Co-Founders, Magzter, said: “We are excited to join forces with VerSe Innovation and contribute to the evolution of content consumption in India,”
“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.”
Magzter has over 1.1 million active paying subscribers from India alone and a user base exceeding 87 million since its establishment in 2011.
Offering thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories, Magzter brings premium content to the Dailyhunt ecosystem. Avendus was the exclusive financial advisor in this transaction.
Verse Innovation’s acquisition capability is underpinned by its financial standing led by its funding round of US$ 805 million, alongside Dailyhunt’s consistent positive EBITDA, for over two years, and showing continuous YoY growth.
It continues to build strategically with the launch of several new initiatives including VerSe Collab – An tech driven Influencer Marketplace and the upcoming introduction of the VerSe NeXTChange, a Bharat focused programmatic audience network and WISE – Verse’s Generative AI Platform for content generation.
