Way2News is an app-based multi-category news platform that has secured $14 million in its series B funding round. WestBridge Capital led the funding round with other investors. The funding round also saw the participation of Venture Capital’s Sashi Reddi. The company plans to scale its operations, expand its presence in the South Indian market, enhance its technology, and develop its market presence.

The startup claims to have new stories from various parts of India available in multiple languages. After this round, the institutional investor WestBride Capital holds the largest external stake and remains the largest stakeholder of the firm. The company plans to strengthen its market presence. The data intelligence platform, tracxn mentioned the post-money valuation of the company around 51.2 million USD as of January 02, 2022.  The startup reported over 50 million downloads across app stores. The startup data intelligence platform, the kredible mentioned that the startup posted a 6 percent increase in its revenue to Rs 29 crore in FY23. However, the loss also increased to Rs 15.14 crore in the same duration.

The startup has secured over 16.8 million USD across two funding rounds since its inception, including 16.7 million USD from WestBridge Capital during its series A funding round. The Hyderabad startup aims to transform the new platforms and provide reliable news beyond districts to villages in their local languages like Kannada or Tamil.  The company offers a platform that provides transparency in the news and stories. This investment shows WestBridge Capital’s trust in Way2News’s market potential and business model. The startup faces competition from news platforms including DailyHunt, KnockSense, Public app, and Feedly.

This news platform aims to use some of this fund to strengthen its platform, enhance its performance capability make it more trustable, and expand across the country. The company provides short, reliable, and relevant news covering small districts to big cities from trusted local sources in their local languages such as Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, and Gujarati. The development came just when this market segment saw increased investor interest. The startup offers a platform that provides news in various languages on different categories including health, entertainment, business, and sports. The platform claims to have around 6.5 million daily and 13 million monthly users. 

Conclusion:

Way2News is a Hyderabad-based startup offering a hyperlocal news platform for reliable and relevant news. The startup got fresh capital of $14 million from WestBridge Capital. The funding round also saw participation from other investors including individual investor Sashi Reddi. The company plans to expand its presence in the South Indian market, scale its operations, and enhance its platform. After this round, the existing investor WestBridge Capital remains Way2News’s largest institutional investor. The startup claims to have over 6.5 million daily and 13 million monthly active users on its platform. The company faces competition from other news publishing companies in the same segment including Dailyhunt. The startup posted a revenue of Rs 29 crore in FY23.