The Quint is an English and Hindi Indian news and opinion website launched in 2015 by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur, operated by Quintillion Media and now part of the listed Quint Digital Limited, based in New Delhi.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what The Quint 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 Quint in Brief

• What it is: The Quint is an Indian Digital news and media company based in New Delhi.
• Who it serves: businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers.
• Publishes general news, opinion, explainers, documentaries and podcasts in English and Hindi
• Runs the WebQoof fact-checking initiative, launched in 2017
• Offers subscriptions for ad-free content and premium membership
• Funding: Reports differ; founder capital reported at $21.5 million and more.

The Quint Quick Facts

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

What Is The Quint?

The Quint 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 Quint.

• Publishes general news, opinion, explainers, documentaries and podcasts in English and Hindi
• Runs the WebQoof fact-checking initiative, launched in 2017
• Offers subscriptions for ad-free content and premium membership
• Runs a brand studio and events

The Origin Story of The Quint

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: Raghav Bahl, Ritu Kapur.
• Founders left Network18 in 2014 and set up Quintillion Media
• Launched January 2015 on Facebook and as a website by March 2015; one database lists 2014 as the founding year
• Funded largely from the founders' Network18 sale proceeds
• In May 2020 Gaurav Mercantiles acquired The Quint's assets and was listed; Bahl and Kapur took 66.42% via a debt-for-equity swap, and it was renamed Quint Digital in September 2020

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.

• 2015: publication launched
• 2016: website passed 10 million unique visitors
• 2017: WebQoof launched; Army booked a reporter over a sting, charges quashed by the Bombay High Court in 2019
• October 2018: Income Tax Department searches
• 2019: subscriptions introduced; Bahl added capital
• May 2020: acquisition by Gaurav Mercantiles and listing
• 2023: remaining 51% of Quintillion Business Media sold to AMG Media (Adani) for Rs 52.45 crore
• Q3 FY24: group reported consolidated profit before tax of Rs 2.04 crore

The Quint 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.

• March and April 2019: Rs 100 crore ($14.36 million) from Raghav Bahl
• June 2019: first tranche of $7.2 million (Rs 50 crore) of a planned $21.5 million (Rs 150 crore)
• 2020: reverse merger into a listed entity

How Does The Quint 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.

• Advertising is the core revenue; branded content, subscriptions and events add to it
• Group revenue below is for the listed parent, Quint Digital Limited, not The Quint alone

The Numbers: The Quint 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.

• Parent Quint Digital: Q3 FY24 consolidated revenue Rs 22.03 crore, up 14%
• Parent: nine months to December 2023 consolidated revenue Rs 67.55 crore and profit before tax Rs 5.71 crore versus a loss of Rs 29.22 crore a year earlier, helped by exiting Quintillion Business Media
• Parent: Q1 FY25 consolidated revenue about Rs 15.6 crore with a loss
• Full-year FY24 and FY25 totals: not found

Market Opportunity for The Quint

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.

• Competes in Indian digital news with other independent outlets
• Traffic reported at about 6.3 million monthly unique visitors in one report

Technology and Product at The Quint

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 Quint’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 Quint

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.

• Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur lead the company
• Staff once exceeded 200 and has since shrunk

The Quint 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.

Risks and Challenges for The Quint

• Reliance on digital advertising
• Past legal and tax scrutiny
• Shrinking staff and coverage
• Losses in recent quarters at group level
• 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 Quint Growth Outlook: What to Watch

• Group profitability improved after exiting the business news unit, but FY25 quarterly losses show it is not stable
• Key indicators: recurring revenue, customer retention, gross margin, customer acquisition cost and runway.
• Funding position: Whether The Quint 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 Quint 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 Quint

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 Quint.

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 Quint

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 Quint.

• 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 Quint as a Startup

• Customer clarity: Can The Quint 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 Quint 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 Quint FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Quint?

The Quint is an English and Hindi Indian news and opinion website launched in 2015 by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur, operated by Quintillion Media and now part of the listed Quint Digital Limited, based in New Delhi. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded The Quint?

The Quint was founded by Raghav Bahl, Ritu Kapur, and the company reports a founding year of 2015.

How much funding has The Quint raised?

Reports differ; founder capital reported at $21.5 million and more. Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does The Quint make money?

The Quint 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 Quint?

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

What are the main risks for The Quint?

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.

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Source

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