Stories

The Juggernaut lands new investors

A handful of venture capitalists have participated in the seed round for The Juggernaut, a premium subscription publication for South Asian stories and news, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: It's the latest in a series of investments from venture capitalists and Hollywood giants in South Asian storylines and talent.

Driving the news: Precursor Ventures, Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch), Bhaskar Ghosh (partner and CTO at 8VC), and Sheel Tyle (founder, Amplo), among others, will join Y Combinator in investing in the startup led by Snigdha Sur.

Details: The company started as a newsletter in October 2017 and launched a $4.99-per-month paid subscription service in February. Sur says 80% of users sign up for an annual plan.

  • Its free newsletter has open rates of about 30-60%, says Sur. (The average rate for publishing is usually around 20%.)
  • Sur says the conversion rate from the free newsletter to the paid subscription has so far been about 6%.

The trend: Media companies in the U.S. are looking to better cover the South Asian population. This year...

  • Mindy Kaling and Priyanka Chopra inked a deal with Universal for a wedding film.
  • Netflix green-lighted a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy series with Kaling starring.
  • HBO is developing "Attachment," a comedy series that centers on a first-generation Indian-American tech CEO.
"The South Asia diaspora is so large. I can't believe this audience doesn't have publication or voice in way they want to to be spoken to covering stories matter to them."
— Charles Hudson, managing partner, Precursor Ventures

Go deeper: Where America's diversity is increasing the fastest

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