Bengaluru, Jun 20 (IANS): Serial media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl invested an additional $7.2 million (Rs 50 crore) in his flagship news website 'The Quint' and other digital media properties, according to data intelligence platform paper.vc.
"According to regulatory filings by Quintillion Media Pvt Ltd, Bahl has invested $7.2 million in The Quint out of $21.5 million (Rs 150 crore) he will invest in three tranches, with the latest investment as the first tranche," said the media firm's filing.
Bahl confirmed to IANS that the investment disclosed in the filing by Quintillion Media Pvt Ltd (part of its routine annual disclosures to the registrar of companies), relates not just to The Quint, but to the entire suite of digital properties it has investments in.
These include, among others, Bloomberg Quint, Quintype, The News Minute, Sheroes, and Youth ki Awaaz.
The latest investment follows two consecutive investments in March and April, totalling $14.36 million (Rs 100 crore).
"In total, Bahl is deploying $36.13 million (Rs 252 crore) in capital, which is an unprecedented investment, considering the cumulative investment of $21.5 million since the company was founded five years ago," said the Chennai-based paper.vc in a statement to IANS.
Bahl launched the news portal in English and Hindi with Ritu Kapur initially on the world's largest social media platform Facebook in January 2015 and subsequently as a website in March 2015.
Incidentally, Bahl has been under the scanner of the Income-Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate over an alleged money laundering case arising out of reported tax evasion, according to media reports.
Tax sleuths raided the residence and office of Bahl last year in the tax evasion case registered against him and Kapur under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Bahl clarified that he had not received a notice or summons for any case under the PMLA. He said he had recently received show cause notices from the Income-Tax Department under the Black Money Act 2015, although no summons had been received relating to these.
Bahl has challenged the notices in a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court and has denied the allegations in a statement and letters to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.