News digest app News in Shorts, which counts Flipkart co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal among its early backers, on Monday said it has raised Rs 25 crore in a Series A round led by Tiger Global. Rebright Partners of Japan and Flipkart’s Bansals also participated.
The startup, which provides news content in less than 60 words, had raised an undisclosed sum in a seed round of funding in June 2014 led by a clutch of angel investors like Ankush Nijhawan, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Manish Dhingra, besides the Bansals and Times Internet.
The fresh funds will be deployed to make text, video and audio content easily consumable on mobile devices.
“We aim to own the mobile content space. Thousands of different forms — text, video, audio — of content are being generated every day. We intend to make all of this content easily consumable on mobile devices,” said Azhar Iqubal, co-founder and CEO, News In Shorts.
The startup was founded by Azhar Iqubal and Anunay Arunav of IIT Delhi and Deepit Purkayastha of IIT Kharagpur in 2013. The app claims to have over 100,000 downloads and has a 4.6-star rating on Google store which, the company claims, makes it the highest rated news app in the play store.
“Clutter-free and immensely fast, News In Shorts gains the faith of a user in short period of time. We believe in the immense potential and high traction that the application is already getting, and this round of funding will give wings to their ambitions,” said Sachin Bansal.