An Indian startup founded by a group of journalists wants to disrupt how people follow and consume news as it prepares to accelerate growth and expand its offering.
He said the brand aims to serve the needs of the modern fast pace of life where everyone is busy. Dinesh NarayananCo-founder and editor in an interview. “People still want to keep up with what’s going on in the world. They may read newspapers or several news outlets, but they obviously don’t have time to work,” he said.
The Noida-headquartered startup is trying to solve this with a brand-name newsletter and podcast that reviews, produces and discusses the most important developments from the worlds of business, technology, economics and politics.
The six-times-weekly newspaper features about a dozen stories in each issue and dives into two to three major stories, providing additional context and commentary from a team of journalists who have previously worked in newsrooms including The Economic Times. Quit, Your Story, Morning Context and Reuters.
Signal said it aims to serve a mature audience in India and beyond. It has amassed more than 38,000 subscribers, a base that includes many unicorn founders, lawmakers and policy makers. The newspaper comes out at 8 AM and requires only five to seven minutes of a reader’s time, says Narayanan.
The startup, which plans to expand the event into many sectors including sports and launch new products, is currently not filling its readers and listeners. Instead, most newspapers are now sponsored by big-name sponsors. Narayanan argued that a sponsored model is a more sustainable way to monetize news production in the country.
“Everybody talks about this total reach market, right? No one really knows what it is today because you’ve got maybe 150-200 million paying people. There’s a lot of ways you’re giving people free news. It’s a very small fraction of the audience that actually pays,” he said.
“So some pay for good journalism, some pay for the exact amount of news they want, and some pay for depth of content. I think the current players are already competing for this small piece of cake.
Each Saturday, Signal publishes original stories in a newspaper called The Intersection.
Signal, including other founders Venkat Anant And Patanjali Pahwa They are also journalists, the latest independent media venture in the South Asian country, which is one of the world’s largest news markets. The founding team also includes the former head of public policy of Google India Rajneel Kamath And Chinamay BhogleFormerly Times Internet, Star Sports and Tata Motors.
Several journalists in the country have left influential jobs at top media houses in recent years, frustrated with trying to bring about systemic change – or taking inspiration from a similar trend in the US. Journalists have traditionally been more entrepreneurial.
But unlike the US and the UK, where several media venture founders have made successful exits, India has yet to show anything.
At the end of the day, Signal’s future depends on the nation’s per capita purchasing power, Narayanan said. “As purchasing power increases and consumption patterns change, just based on that… exits and the size of the exits is a function of that. It’s a business. Yes, so it is definitely linked to the overall wealth of the country,” he added.
For now, that signal is nothing to worry about.
The startup said Monday it had raised new funding, but did not disclose the amount. Signal’s angel investors include CRED’s Miten Sampat, Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal, Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal, Haptic co-founder Akrit Vaish, media entrepreneur Pari Ravindranathan, Vue.ai founder Ashwini Asokan and Delstreet Asia founder. Investment fund LetsVenture led the round while venture capital fund Capital A also participated, Narayanan said. Fintech-focused fund Rainmatter also invested in the round, according to a regulatory filing. (Narayanan and Reinmatter did not comment on the fund’s involvement.)
“Venkat, Patanjali, Dinesh and Roshni P Nair have written some of the most important stories in Indian technology over the past 5 years, and I’m excited to see them build the signal to make readers understand it all,” Sampath said. , seeks an outlet for complex narratives through original writing and innovative forms of thought.”
