Applications
News In Short raises Rs 127 crore in Series B funding
MUMBAI: News In Shorts, a startup that launched the India based mobile news app has raised Rs 127 crore from its existing venture capital investor Tiger Global in Series B funding. With this, the company, according to the Economic Times, is now valued at about Rs 570-Rs 635 crore.
Founded by IIT dropouts Azhar Iqubal, Deepit Purkayastha and Anunay Arunav, News In Shorts is a news publishing app that curates the top 60 news story of the day and crunches them into 60 word shorts for the readers. Its launch was actively backed by funding from Times Internet, mentors Ankush Nijhawan, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Manish Dhingra.
The app had crossed over 100,000 downloads for iOS and Android by February. “It is these increases, which directly led to this new funding round from Tiger Global,” News In Shorts co-founder Purkayastha informed techcrunch.com.
The co-founder further stated that this round of Series B capital will be primarily used to enhance their Android app, since the Google-owned platform accounts for around 80 per cent of mobile devices in India.
The report also highlights the editorial team’s plans on working on a number of new additions, including a personalization engine that predicts user’s interests, and a feature to allow users to express and share opinions on news via the service.
“The only focus that we have right now is to make sure that the app runs smoothly on lower-end smartphones as well,” News In Shorts co-founder and CEO Azhar Iqubal told The Economic Times.
The startup hit the headlines earlier this year after it received Series A funding of Rs 25 crore from Tiger Global, with participation from Japan’s Rebright Partners and Flipkart’s Bansals.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
