Indian tech and media startup VerSe, which operates popular news aggregator Dailyhunt, is worth about 42% below its last private valuation, according to estimates by its investor 360 One.
The wealth and asset manager disclosed in a June update to its investors that it values VerSe at $2.9 billion, according to an internal document reviewed by TechCrunch. 360 One owns a 2% stake in the startup.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup — which counts Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, CPP Investments, Goldman Sachs, Google, Sofina and Peak XV among its other backers — was valued at about $5 billion in a $805 million funding round it announced in April 2022.
In the update, 360 One also disclosed that it had marked up the valuation of NSE, India’s largest exchange, to $29.9 billion, TechCrunch previously reported.
360 One declined to comment.
“Ever since our last round in April 2022, our business has grown exponentially wherein revenue has grown more than 2x and burn has reduced by more than 3x. Hence while the company has not engaged in a price discovery round since then, the exponential growth of every single financial metric in the business, highlights that our valuation would only have grown since 2022,” a VerSe spokesperson told TechCrunch.
“Different investors come in at different points of time at differential price points and can opt to mark their value accordingly. However the actions of a very small minority investor, in no way apply to 98% of the investors on the cap table who has still marked the primary value of the company at its last round post valuation of ~ $5Bn.The company is very well capitalized & has not raised any capital since April 2002 & we would like to categorically highlight that there is no change in the valuation of the company as reflected in our filings as well.”
This downward valuation adjustment aligns with an ongoing global trend: Investors are marking down the worth of their startup holdings. For instance, asset manager Fidelity has reduced the value of its stakes in X, Gupshup and Discord.
Fidelity disclosed on Friday that it values its holding in X, formerly Twitter, at approximately 27.94% of its original investment. This new valuation places the Elon Musk-led social media company, which he bought for $44 billion, at $12.3 billion at the end of July. Similarly, Fidelity estimates that SaaS startup Gupshup is now worth about $541 million, down from its $1.4 billion valuation in 2021.
The investor update from 360 One also covered holdings in several other startups. It valued food delivery giant Swiggy at $11.5 billion, up from its last private funding round in early 2022 at $10.7 billion. The report assigned a $4 billion valuation to Pine Labs, a merchant payments platform. Online meat and seafood retailer Licious was valued at $900 million, while edtech company upGrad had a valuation of $1.9 billion ascribed to it, TechCrunch previously reported.
