Printline Media Pvt Ltd, a venture founded by Shekhar Gupta, is pleased to announce the conclusion of its first round of funding with a stellar list of investors.
N.R. Narayana Murthy, Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani, Uday Kotak Family, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Bangalore-based tech entrepreneur Rajiv C. Mody, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman, LVMH Asia Ravi Thakran, IIFL founders Nirmal Jain, R. Venkataraman, Karan Bhagat and Yatin Shah are eminent investors in the venture.
Printline Media will publish ThePrint, a multi-media, mostly digital news platform.
ThePrint is built on three central beliefs.
First, that there is a large and growing audience of curious, critical, aware and questioning Indians who value the news they need, from the names they trust.
Second, there exists a wide philosophical and intellectual space that is socially and economically liberal and not doctrinaire Left or Right. A space for non-hyphenated liberalism.
And third, there is no contradiction between good journalism and the market-place.
This opens possibilities across platforms for serious, substantive and probing journalism, with a formidable opinion punch.
“We at ThePrint are gratified that people of such eminence have backed this idea,” said Shekhar Gupta. “All of them have brilliant track records as entrepreneurs and take their money seriously. This gives a special edge to their endorsement at this early stage.”
BMR Advisors and KLaw acted as transaction and legal advisors, respectively, for the raise.
ThePrint team is growing at its new editorial and corporate office on New Delhi’s so-called ‘Fleet Street’ – Third floor, 9 & 10 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.