China’s Qiming Venture Partners leads $15.2m investment in Indian firm Pratilipi

Qiming Venture Partners founding managing partner Gary Rieschel. Photo: Bloomberg

By Paramita Chatterjee

June 6, 2019

China-based venture capital Qiming Venture Partners has led a Rs 105 crore ($15.2 million) funding in Bengaluru-based self-publishing platform Pratilipi that enables users to read, write and listen to stories in diverse Indian languages, according to media reports.

Other investors who participated in the funding round are its existing backers Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network India, Shunwei Capital, Contrarian Vriddhi Fund and WEH Ventures.

So far, the startup has raised over $20 million in funding.

Established in 2014, Pratilipi (that means ‘you become what you read’ in Sanskrit) deals with original works such as stories, poetry, essays and articles, penned down by both professionals and hobbyists. It claims to have over 800K stories written by about 100K users. Currently, the number of its active monthly readers stands at 5.2 million.

The corpus raised will help Pratilipi spruce up its technology infrastructure, enhance its recommendation and personalisation engines, widen the number of writers and introduce newer forms of storytelling.

Pratilipi counts YourQuote, ShareChat, Helo, and Vmate, among its competitors.

The startup raised its Series A funding worth $4.3 million in February last year, led by Omidyar Network. Before this, it had garnered as much as $1 million in seed funding in 2016 that was led by venture capitalist Nexus Venture Partners and other investors.

Qiming, one of the leading venture capital firms in China, currently manages a portfolio of over $4 billion across 12 funds. IT focuses on investments in sectors such as consumer internet, healthcare, information technology and clean-tech.

Related Stories

Deals

India Dealbook: Pratilipi, YourDOST, Voler raise funds; Sabre part exits Man Infraconstruction

Venture Capital

India: Self-publishing platform Pratilipi raises $4.3m in funding round led by Omidyar Network

Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Contrarian Capital, Atul Goel and Times Internet also participated in the round.

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW