Bangalore: VerSe Innovation, India’s biggest local language technology platform, announced that it has acquired Vebbler, an interest-based community-focused photo and video sharing app launched by Sahil Bhagat. This is the second acquisition in two weeks for VerSe Innovation who recently acquired AI-startup Cognirel Technologies. With the acquisition of Vebbler, the company which recently emerged as India’s first tech unicorn for local languages, advances in its mission to build the largest digital media platform that serves unmet content needs of millions of consumers using technology.
Speaking on the acquisition, VerSe Innovation Founder Virendra Gupta and Co-Founder Umang Bedi, said, “The combination of Vebbler’s product capabilities with our platform will improve our ability to drive innovation around the camera and social engagement and play a more meaningful role in capturing the mindshare, timeshare, and revenue share of Bharat’s local language users. We have every intent to make good on our investor and consumer confidence and will continue to build and acquire powerful tools and technologies that deliver products which are consumer-focused and content-forward. We welcome the Vebbler team and look forward to creating an exciting future together.”
Vebbler lets people join groups called ‘clubs’ and share photos and videos around different interests, whether it’s fashion, travel, photography or entertainment. With over 100+ categories, users create content using Vebbler’s camera, packed with superior creation tools such as AI-based neural-art filters, effects, stickers, GIFs, drawing tools and fonts along with proprietary technology on video processing and editing. Leveraging Vebbler’s camera and community will give Josh a powerful differentiator in the market and present millions of Josh users the additional opportunity to harness India’s diverse creativity and talent.
Sahil Bhagat, Founder, Vebbler also shares, “My vision with Vebbler was to build a video first social media platform out of India. Our use case, domain understanding, technology expertise is unique in the Indian market. In VerSe Innovation’s vision, we find strategic synergies between Josh and Vebbler. This deal speaks volumes to the value and quality of our product. We are extremely excited to work together and inch closer to our shared vision of building a global product with Josh.”
Vebbler was backed initially by actors Dino Morea and Nikhil Chinapa. Originally, Vebbler was designed as a private way to share photos and videos with friends in real-time at events, such as holidays, weddings and concerts, which then pivoted into an interest-based network in 2018.
In the last three months, Josh, has attracted over a $200M+ investment from global marquee investors such as Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, and Glade Brook Capital Partners, along with Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave (a unit of Falcon Edge Capital).
Josh is a made-in-India, short-video app launched in September 2020 by VerSe Innovation. It represents a confluence of India’s top 200+ best creators, the 10 biggest music labels, 15+ million UGC creators, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics. Josh has been consistently rated as the leading Indian short-video app in India on the Play store. Currently, Josh is the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India with over 85 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 40 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 1.5+ billion video plays per day.
