The Print Startup Deep Dive: Business Model, Funding, Risks

Startup Deep Dive : The Print — Raised undisclosed funding in 2017 from Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and others, who hold about 20%

The Print ThePrint is a New Delhi-based Indian online news outlet, run by Printline Media Pvt Ltd and launched in August 2017 by editor Shekhar Gupta.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what The Print does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

The Print in Brief

What it is: The Print is an Indian Digital news and media company based in New Delhi.
Who it serves: businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers.
Publishes news, analysis and opinion in English and Hindi, separating reporting from opinion
Hosts the Off The Cuff talk show series, begun in February 2016 with Aaj Tak and now mostly online
Distributes video on Facebook and YouTube
Funding: Not disclosed; aggregators give conflicting figures from $0.5 million to $20 million.

The Print Quick Facts

Company	The Print
Founded	2017
Headquarters	New Delhi
Founders	Shekhar Gupta
Sector	Digital news and media
Total funding	Not disclosed; aggregators give conflicting figures from $0.5 million to $20 million
Latest round	First round concluded July 2017, amount undisclosed
Valuation	Not disclosed
Website	Not disclosed

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is The Print?

The Print operates in the Digital news and media space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to The Print.

Publishes news, analysis and opinion in English and Hindi, separating reporting from opinion
Hosts the Off The Cuff talk show series, begun in February 2016 with Aaj Tak and now mostly online
Distributes video on Facebook and YouTube
Describes its mission as being factual and liberal

The Origin Story of The Print

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

Founders: Shekhar Gupta.
Printline Media Pvt Ltd was incorporated in New Delhi on 16 September 2016
Shekhar Gupta, formerly of Indian Express and NDTV, founded it; one report says Barkha Dutt co-founded it in January 2016 and later left
Launched in August 2017 after the first funding round

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the Digital news and media sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

January 2016: Off The Cuff began; reported co-founding with Barkha Dutt
September 2016: Printline Media incorporated
July 2017: first round of funding concluded with prominent Indian investors
August 2017: ThePrint launched
June 2026: published an article with a fabricated quote attributed to Jeff Bezos from a parody account

The Print Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

July 2017: undisclosed amount from N.R. Narayana Murthy, Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani, the Uday Kotak family, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rajiv Mody, Ravi Thakran, and the IIFL founders
Investors together held about 20% and Gupta the rest, per a 2017 report

How Does The Print Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

Mainly digital advertising
One-time donations and recurring subscriptions from patrons
Events, per a book chapter summary

The Numbers: The Print Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

Audited revenue, profit and loss figures for The Print were not available in the public sources reviewed.
Readers can check the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies for the latest financial statements.

Market Opportunity for The Print

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are rising digital adoption, cloud and mobile penetration, growing enterprise technology spending, government digitisation programmes and a deep pool of engineering talent. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

Indian English-language digital news competing with mainstream sites and independent outlets

Technology and Product at The Print

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are product quality, data and integration depth, security, scalability and the speed of shipping improvements.

Core capability: Public detail on The Print’s technology stack is limited beyond company-stated descriptions.
Assessment lens: product quality, data and integration depth, security, scalability and the speed of shipping improvements.

Team and Culture at The Print

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

Shekhar Gupta is founder and editor-in-chief

The Print Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Competitor	How it differs
Scroll.in	Named as a digital rival in 2017 coverage
The Quint	Named as a digital rival in 2017 coverage
The News Minute	Named in 2017 coverage
Newslaundry	Named in 2017 coverage
The Wire	Named in 2017 coverage

Risks and Challenges for The Print

Dependence on advertising and patron support
Editorial credibility incident in 2026
Limited public financial disclosure
Competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth.
Funding risk: technology businesses often burn cash before reaching profit and depend on investor appetite.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

The Print Growth Outlook: What to Watch

No revenue or profit figures found; growth depends on ads and reader support
Key indicators: recurring revenue, customer retention, gross margin, customer acquisition cost and runway.
Funding position: Whether The Print can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
Regulation: Changes from data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

Industry Context: Where The Print Fits

India's technology startup ecosystem is one of the largest in the world, supported by cheap data, a large base of smartphone users, digital public infrastructure and a deep engineering talent pool. Companies now build for education, software, mobility, logistics, agriculture, defence, media and more, selling both to Indian customers and abroad.

Durable technology companies usually combine a clear customer problem with repeatable distribution and disciplined unit economics. Growth funded only by spending tends to fade, while products that customers keep using and paying for build compounding advantages.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for The Print

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for The Print.

Bull case

A large and growing base of digital users and businesses expands the addressable market.
Recurring revenue and strong retention can compound growth.
Selling into global markets widens the opportunity beyond India.

Bear case

Heavy competition can compress pricing and margins.
Dependence on external funding can force painful cost cuts.
Regulation or platform changes can disrupt a product quickly.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from The Print

Studying a company in the Digital news and media space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about The Print.

Solving a clear, frequent customer problem matters more than adding features.
Retention and repeat usage are better health signals than sign-ups.
Disciplined spending extends runway and keeps options open when funding tightens.
Distribution, not just product quality, decides who wins in crowded markets.
Building trust through data protection and reliability is part of the product.

How to Evaluate The Print as a Startup

Customer clarity: Can The Print name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

The Print is part of India’s growing Digital news and media ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

The Print FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Print?

ThePrint is a New Delhi-based Indian online news outlet, run by Printline Media Pvt Ltd and launched in August 2017 by editor Shekhar Gupta. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded The Print?

The Print was founded by Shekhar Gupta, and the company reports a founding year of 2017.

How much funding has The Print raised?

Not disclosed; aggregators give conflicting figures from $0.5 million to $20 million. Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does The Print make money?

The Print earns revenue from its Digital news and media products and services sold to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of The Print?

Reported rivals include Scroll.in, The Quint, The News Minute, Newslaundry. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for The Print?

Main risks include competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules. This is educational content, not investment advice.

Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.