From Bihar to Billion-Dollar Startup Azhar Iqubal’s Inshort Analysis

In 2009, Azhar Iqubal, hailing from Kishanganj, Bihar, began his journey at IIT Delhi, only to drop out three years later to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. Growing up in a Hindi-medium school, he later shifted to Delhi for IIT coaching, where his entrepreneurial spark ignited.

Despite initial setbacks with two failed business ideas, Iqubal found success by simplifying news into 60-word snippets on Facebook during his college days. In 2013, he, along with two IIT Delhi classmates, launched "News in Shorts," later rebranded as "Inshorts" in 2015.

Inshorts offers concise news summaries and has expanded to include videos and blogs, focusing on Hindi news for wider appeal. By 2017, it generated ?25 crore in revenue through in-app ads, though penetrating Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets posed challenges.

The company embraced AI integration in 2018, revolutionizing news delivery with editorially curated single-screen cards and AI-driven personalization. Their Rapid60 algorithm summarizes articles into 60-word briefs.

Despite facing revenue challenges, Inshorts orts secured $100 million in funding in 2022, propelling its valuation to ?4000 crore. It remains a top English news app, symbolizing Azhar Iqubal's remarkable journey from dropout to visionary entrepreneur, alongside Public, a local app with over 100 million downloads.

In the fiscal year 2019–2020, Inshorts generated a revenue of $14 million. By FY19, it had achieved a revenue run rate of $10 million per year. The company became operationally profitable in November 2017, with a net revenue of $3.4 million, compared to $0.4 million in 2016. As of March 31, 2023, Inshorts’ annual revenue stood at $18.3 million.

Inshorts follows a unique business model by delivering news in under 60 words, focusing on essential information without opinion or narration. After raising funding of $60 million in July 2021, Inshorts was valued at approximately $550 million.

India’s digital newspaper and magazine market is expected to grow significantly, with revenues projected to reach INR 1,079.00 million by 2024. This continuous increase highlights the growing potential and importance of digital media consumption in India.

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