The Ken, a digital business news platform from Bangalore received a funding of INR 1.47 Cr from a group of investors that includes Siddharth Bhammar (Executive Director-JP Morgan), Anchal Jain (Portfolio Manager – Balyasny Asset Management) and Murali A (MD – Graticule Asset Management Asia).
Kenrise Media Private Limited, the parent company of The Ken prepared 688 redeemable preference shares of INR 20 per share at a premium of INR 21,386.15 each.
Back in February 2017, the business website was able to receive an angel funding worth INR 2.59 Cr from famous angel investors such as Aprameya Radhakrishna (co-founder of TaxiForSure), Girish Mathrubhootham (CEO of Freshdesk) and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm founder) among others.
Mahesh Murthy, co-founder of early-stage investment company Seedfund was also an investor in The Ken but left the company only three months after. Back then, he said about his exit from the company, “I sold my shares as I got a great exit and return on my investment. It was a private sale to another investor and I really can’t say more about it.”
The company was founded in 2016 and operates as a premium subscriber-only platform. The website’s founder Ashish K Mishra remained quiet concerning the development of this funding round. Journalist Seema Singh and entrepreneurs Sumanth Raghavendra and Rohin Dharmakumar also founded the website. The Ken was set up as an attempt to repair India’s “broken” business media environment and also prove that some individuals are concerned about business news, and ready to pay to receive quality journalism in India.
The Ken publishes an article per day behind a paywall whose access is charged at INR 2,750 for Indian users annually. Users can also subscribe to packages of INR 900 for a 3-month subscription duration. It covers principally topics such as technology and business but they have plans to move onto additional areas in the future.