News aggregator Dailyhunt is in advanced stages to acquire social media platform Koo, according to reports.

The Bengaluru-headquartered social network platform is often touted to be India’s answer to Twitter (now X), and was launched in 2020 amid Twitter’s run-ins with the government over free speech policies.

Co-founder Mayank Bidawatka had spoken about exploring a strategic partnership amid the funding winter of 2023 last year.

The potential deal, which is likely to be finalised within weeks, is under a share-swap agreement as per sources cited by TechCrunch.

Taking to LinkedIn, Bidawatka said the company is in talks with multiple partners to help the platform grow organically.

“Our responsibility towards a wider community of stakeholders (users, creators, VIPs, investors, policy makers, media) forces us to not share anything prematurely while we'd like to say more. Requesting your patience till we can share more concrete details of this partnership that will help Koo take wings in an organic manner and help challenge global competitors in a meaningful way,” he said.

Koo has raised about $66 million from the likes of Tiger Global, 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures and Accel, as per data platform Tracxn.

Co-founded by Bidawatka and Aprameya Radhakrishnan, the app also expanded to markets like Brazil.

In his September 2023 post, Bidawatka said the company took a 180 degree turn from growing rapidly to cutting down on growth and proving unit economics within six months of revenue generation.

“It takes years to build a globally competitive microblog. Even Threads, from the Godfather of social platforms, is taking time to build basic features,” he said.

The company has witnessed a decline in users, and also saw 30 per cent of its workforce being laid off in April 2023, its second round of layoffs after letting go of 40 people in 2022.

Dailyhunt, founded in 2009, is said to be valued at $5 billion. It offers multi-category news in regional languages.