Two months after raising $100 million, and gaining Unicorn status, VerSe Innovation has again raised $100 million. The company behind short video platform, Josh and local language news aggregator DailyHunt, VerSe Innovation’s Series H funding round was led by Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, along with Glade Brook Capital Partners. The round also saw participation from Canaan Valley Capital and existing investor Sofina Group.

In December 2020, VerSe Innovation had raised $100 million from Google, Microsoft and AlphaWave in December 2020. Its existing investors include Goldman Sachs, Lupa Systems, Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital and Omidyar Network, among others.

In a statement, the company mentioned that the fresh capital will be used to scale up its short video platform, Josh. This will include the augmentation of local language content offerings, the development of its content creator ecosystem, innovation in AI and ML, and more importantly, creating an opportunity for India’s vast talent pool.

Launched in July 2020, Josh rose to fame after the Indian government’s ban on TikTok. The platform is touted to be the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India at present with over 85 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 40 million DAUs (Daily Active Users), and over 1.5 billion video plays per day. The company also said that Josh currently hosts India's top 200 creators, 10 biggest music labels, over 15 million UGC creators, different content creation tools, entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics.