Rajaram unicorn DailyHunt raises $200m from Alpha, Google, MS with CAM x 2, Trilegal x 3, JSA, Touchstone

Dailyhunt’s parent VerSe is on a funding streak. Barely one-and-a-half months after completing a USD 100 million-plus funding round from AlphaWave, Google, and Microsoft, at a valuation of over USD 1 billion, the holding company of the local language news aggregator app has raised another USD 100 million in a Series H funding round.

Kr-Asia.Com

Rajaram Legal advised Ver Se Innovation Private Limited, operating as DailyHunt, led by a team of partner Prasad Subramanyan and senior associate Nikita Rajwade.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP was advising the Qatar Investment Authority with a team comprising of partner Nallini Puri, and associates Surya Banerjee and Georgia Moorhouse.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted for Alpha Wave led by a team of partners Akshay Bhat and Kota Chandan, principal associate Suvojit Halder, senior associate Sambhrama Malimath, and associate Saumya Sahai.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas also acted for Google with partner Harish S and senior associate Saloni Shroff.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) acted for Microsoft led by partner Lalit Kumar and senior associate Amandeep Singh Virk.

Touchstone Partners represented Glade Brook and Canaan Valley Capital led by a team of partner Ruchir Sinha and associate Sanjana Bhatnagar.

Series H Investors Lupa Systems and Sofina, and Existing Investor Omidyar Network were all represented by their respective in-house legal teams.

Existing Investor Goldman Sachs was represented by Trilegal, led by a team of partners Sridhar Gorthi and Aniruddha Sen, counsel Deep Choudhuri, and associates Shikha Rawal and Kanishtha Mehta.

Trilegal also represented Exis.

Update 14 February 2021: Trilegal also advised Bytedance (HK) Limited (an existing investor) led by a team including partner Gautam Singh and senior associate Kushal Ramotre.

2021-02-08

Deal value: USD 200 million

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Comments

Illegal Raja 13 Feb 2021, 06:30
+7 -3
RL provides company secretarial services like Algo or legal services?
Midas Touch 13 Feb 2021, 07:05
+1 -0
Good to see Ruchir on the deal representing touch stone and not NDA
Big Fan 15 Feb 2021, 13:32
+22 -8
Nikita is truly fantastic! Well done!
Fan 13 Feb 2021, 07:58
+28 -7
Go for it, Nikita!
Curiosity 15 Feb 2021, 02:07
+1 -11
It's interest that this comment has gotten so much traction...do you actually know that rajaram has been low balling fee?
Alias 15 Feb 2021, 05:24
+10 -6
Yes. Pretty well known.
Strange 15 Feb 2021, 13:18
+6 -10
What a strange thing to write as a comment to a deal report.
Strange 15 Feb 2021, 13:31
+6 -8
News flash's comment is strange I mean. The deal is done, why mudsling when it's not called for?
News flash 13 Feb 2021, 13:02
+23 -15
What JSA does to the top 15 firms in the country, Rajaram does to the next 30. Low ball the market beyond recognition.
bhootique 13 Feb 2021, 23:18
+10 -7
Its great to get paid for copy+paste job
Tubelight 14 Feb 2021, 03:36
+7 -2
lol
Zoom 15 Feb 2021, 13:54
+22 -4
Odd that JSA is being accused of lowballing on a post that has CAM, which has notoriously been undercutting the market for years now.
Interesting 15 Feb 2021, 14:22
+19 -2
I heard recently that CAM is taking company side matters for 1-2L.
Insidiouser 17 Feb 2021, 16:06
+5 -0
CAM's capmarks practice has grown on the back of 1re deals for PSUs. Anyway half their A0 rotation works entirely on doing paralegal style mass DDs and calling themselves transactional attorneys. Nobody in the Top 6/7 firms price-pressures the market that way CAM has been doing. They're the bane of the aviation sector, scooping up deals for chump change and then reducing bonuses to compensate.
Scott Hall 15 Feb 2021, 11:05
+12 -5
The VDD was done by SAM Team. Dailyhunt went to Rajaram for the docs due to affordability issues.
Liability is yours 15 Feb 2021, 13:02
+6 -7
For costs, the clients forget and ignore their liabilities. Point to be noted:

1. Liability of the lawyers is limited to the fees earned. In case of a USD 5 million deal, the advisors liability maybe just 1 Lakh rupees

2. Founders are busy with the products and business and do not know the legal and regulatory risks

3. Investors may vary of their rights as founders may disappear overnight

While investing millions, focus on the 1 lakh fees being charged. Copy+Paste may not be worth in the long run.

Lets wait and watch how startups face the heat from large investors when they litigate in the very near future. Start saving startups and their founders as you may need tons of USDs to litigate. Happy Copy pasting the rest.
StartingDown 15 Feb 2021, 13:56
+7 -12
Cant agree more. This bound to happen when startups advice startups. A blind showing the way to a Blind. Be prepared for the blunder.
Funny 15 Feb 2021, 14:20
+3 -10
What's ironic about this comment is that rajaram has recently represented Sequoia, Matrix and Lightspeed (amongst others ). So I suppose the question is - what are you talking about!?
Illegal Ravana 15 Feb 2021, 14:35
+6 -5
Talking about you Raja. Dont get upset. Remember Themis? The trend will follow.
ShekhoyaMatrix 15 Feb 2021, 14:42
+5 -4
These firms like copy+paste types maybe. Whether there is light or speed may not matter? Think.
Redpill 16 Feb 2021, 08:02
+5 -3
Are you implying that firms that charge more aren't copy pasting on a standard transaction like this one? All firms copy+paste, some just charge more for it than others.
Steno 15 Feb 2021, 14:46
+5 -3
Sequoia, Matrix and lightspeed know the business. For 20-25 deals a year, instead of hiring stenos in house, its better to outsource?
Ishteno 15 Feb 2021, 15:35
+6 -3
Outsourcing works well and that at the cost of less than pani puri. Imagine a fix fee of 20 lakhs per annum for any number of investment deals. Its like unlimited pani puri for 50 rupees.
Pani Puri 15 Feb 2021, 16:50
+5 -3
Hillarious. The big boys must approach BCI and CCI for cutting some firms do and offer legal services for pani puris :)
Banglur 15 Feb 2021, 18:15
+4 -8
It takes a lot to spread the Banglur model PAN India.