Utilizing funds from its India Digitization Fund (the $7.5 billion that was earmarked for India), Google invested in 2 Indian startups, Glance and DailyHunt—propelling both to the $1B+ valuation unicorn club. Billion here, a billion there, while rest of us scramble for small seed pennies. :P
The company now reports over 115 million Daily Active Users, working directly with leading Android smartphone makers in India, including Xiaomi and Samsung. US and global expansion is now on the cards. Genius how InMobi turned this tiny “add-on” extension into a content delivery unicorn right under our noses.
On the other hand, DailyHunt picked up a $100 million check from Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave, all of which is reportedly going to drive growth for the company’s short-video platform Josh. The vernacular platform, which is available in 12+ languages, is going after 200 million users it “believes” it can capture.
Absolutely believable considering DailyHunt already has like 300 million users, many of whom can be converted, and now they have a fat fat check to ramp up assault.
Bottomline: Google is a smart capital allocator. By investing in platforms around “content” and “advertising” the company is virtually insulating itself from eventual disruption that may come from India, especially considering explosive growth in vernacular content in India. Regardless, the capital infusion is definitely a big win for the local ecosystem, which could see a lot of this capital trickle downstream in time.