Digital media startup Pixr8 raises seed funding

Pixr8 Media LLP, which runs business news portal Pixr8 News, said on Thursday that it has raised Rs 25 lakh ($37,000) in seed funding from an unnamed angel investor.

Pixr8 chief executive officer and founder Nitish Singh said the angel investor was a Delhi-based businessman.

The New Delhi-based media firm said in a statement that it plans to use the fresh capital to expand its customer base and hire new talent to help boost its market reach.

In addition, Pixr8 News plans to expand in India and overseas, said Singh. The firm currently has offices in Lucknow and Delhi.

Founded in 2014, Pixr8 News’ coverage includes startups, small and medium enterprises as well as the stock markets. It competes with a few products of The VCCircle Network including TechCircle.

The parent of VCCircle Network, whose businesses include subscription data products, events, training programmes and a subscription-led news website, was acquired by News Corp in March 2015.

Deals in the space

Several digital media companies have raised funding this year.

Earlier this month, New Delhi-based India Sports Flashes, which operates sports content app Sports Flashes, had raised $1 million (Rs 6.7 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round from early-stage venture capital fund SRI Capital.

In May, NewsDog, a Hindi and vernacular app founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, received $50 million (Rs 340 crore) in a Series C round led by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings.

In the same month, VCCircle reported that Bengaluru-based Wishfie, a platform launched last year for live video debates on current affairs, had raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round to create vernacular content as well as build its online community.

In March, subscription-based news startup The Ken raised around $228,000 (Rs 1.48 crore) from a group of individual investors in its second round of funding.

Update: The story has been updated to revise the deal size.