Koo’s cofounder Mayank Bidawakta confirmed in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday that the firm was in talks with “multiple partners” for a “strategic partnership”, without giving details about who the firm was engaged in talks with. A development on the acquisition talks could be expected in a “couple of weeks”, a person in the know told ET.
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“We have no comment on recent speculations; our focus remains on our core objectives,” a spokesperson for VerSe Innovation told ET. A spokesperson for Koo pointed to Bidawakta’s LinkedIn post as the only official statement from the firm. News portal TechCrunch was the first to report the acquisition talks.
“Requesting your patience till we can share more concrete details of this partnership that will help Koo take wings in an organic manner and help challenge global competitors in a meaningful way,” Bidawatka added in his post.
Koo has been touted as an Indian competitor to microblogging site Twitter (now called X), and was in focus when a number of Indian ministers moved to using the platform amid a spat with Twitter during the farmers’ protest in early 2021. The two apps had a number of similarities in user interface.
Over the past year, Koo has struggled amid a wider funding winter, firing 30% of its 260-strong workforce as of April last year. Bidawatka had said in September that the company was looking for fundraising opportunities or tie-ups with a strategic partner that would help it scale up its operations.
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Koo has so far raised over $65 million from investors like Tiger Global, Accel, 3One4 Capital, Mirae Asset and Blume. VerSe Innovation, on the other hand, laid off around 150 people from its 3,000-strong workforce in November 2022, besides implementing salary cuts for some employees. The firm had last raised $805 million in a funding round led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at a $5 billion valuation. Investors like Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund, Luxor Capital, Sumeru Ventures, and Sofina Group have also invested in VerSe.