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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Editor's note: This week saw a rather striking venture capital investment that needs to be talked about. On Wednesday, a social network for hyperlocal video content called Public raised $41 million in funding. The round was led by A91 Partners and some of the existing investors in Public. That’s the news part of the deal. But it is also where things get interesting. Public comes from the house of Delhi-based online news aggregator Inshorts, which has been quietly bulking up for about seven years now. This is the second investment in Inshorts in about six months; in September, the company had raised $35 million in a round led by Lee Fixel’s venture capital firm Addition, and the funding was supposed to go to Public. Following the latest round, Public is valued at about $250 million. These are no small details and need to be understood in the context of the ecosystem that Public operates in. It is essentially a social network that serves you video content—news, updates, jobs, commerce, classifieds—based on your location. According to its founder and chief executive officer, Azhar …
The fund seems convinced that technology-led businesses in India are overvalued and not good for making big exits. Instead, what is needed to return large sums of capital are investments in mature companies with a proven track record.
The social media platform, which has seen the number of users shoot up in the past couple of months, aims to be a worthy alternative to X. But it remains to be seen how its ambitions will pan out in the long run.
What is more important for a venture fund—an investment strategy that is sold to limited partners to raise money or ultimately the fund returns that can come from practically anywhere?
