As a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee prepares to examine changes to India’s foreign-funding law, documents examined by The Sunday Guardian show that foreign capital has been invested in India’s digital news sector through direct equity investments and specialist media-investment funds. The records document Omidyar Network investments in Scroll.in, News laundry and The Ken, as well as Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) financing of Indian media organisations including Scroll.in, Gram Vaani and The Morning Context. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 was referred by the Lok Sabha to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 12 August for detailed examination.
The records examined show that foreign investment in Indian digital news has taken the form of equity investment in commercial media companies, a category distinct from foreign contributions regulated under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Omidyar Network was founded in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam Omidyar. It operates through a hybrid structure comprising a US charitable foundation and a limited liability company, allowing it to make both grants and investments. Omidyar says the two entities are directly funded by the Omidyars.
Since its inception, it says it has committed more than $1.94 billion, including more than $739 million in for-profit investments and more than $1.12 billion in grants to nonprofit organisations. The first direct Omidyar investment in an Indian digital-news organisation identified in the records was in Scroll Media Inc., the company behind Scroll. in, in 2014. Contemporary reporting said Scroll received funding from Omidyar Network with participation from MDIF. The amount invested by either organisation was not disclosed. The funding was intended to support Scroll’s technology and editorial expansion. Omidyar subsequently invested in Newslaundry.
Newslaundry announced in February 2016 that Omidyar Network, along with other investors, had invested in the company for equity. Its later ownership disclosure said investors had put a total of Rs 4.2 crore into the company in 2014- 15. It said Omidyar’s investment vehicle, ON Mauritius, held 16.77% of the company at the time of the disclosure. The same disclosure identified Omidyar as an equity investor in Scroll and The Ken. The third direct Omidyar investment in an Indian digitalnews publisher identified in the records was The Ken. In July 2018, The Ken raised $1.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network. The publication used the money to expand its subscription-based journalism business.
These three transactions were equity investments in commercial digital-media companies and were distinct from grants to non-profit journalism organisations. The records therefore establish a direct foreign-equity route into Indian digital news. The documents establish that foreign capital has entered parts of India’s digital-news sector through direct equity investments, specialist mediainvestment funds and funding of media-development organisations. They do not establish that the foreign investors dictated the editorial output of the organisations named in this report. They also do not establish that the financing was unlawful or that the different organisations formed a single coordinated foreign-financing operation.
Omidyar’s investment activity in India predates its entry into digital news. Its financial statements from the period before the Scroll investment describe investments in private-equity funds that invested primarily in institutions in emerging economies and small and medium-sized enterprises in India. The same description appears in subsequent financial statements, showing that its India investment activity did not begin with its media investments. Former BJP Member of Parliament Jayant Sinha headed Omidyar’s India operation during its formative years. Institutional and contemporary records place him in charge of Omidyar Network’s Indian investment strategy from 2009 to 2013.
The records examined establish his role in the organisation’s early India operations, but do not establish that he was involved in the later investments in Scroll, News laundry or The Ken. Omidyar’s interest in media also predates its investment in Scroll. Its 2011 US Form 990-PF tax filing records a $2 million programme-related investment in the Media Development Loan Fund, which later became the Media Development Investment Fund. The same filing records a $1.045 million programme-related investment in SONG Growth Company to fund scalable small and medium-sized businesses in India. In December 2023, Omidyar Network India, a separate, India-focused entity from the US-based Omidyar Network, announced that it would stop making new investments in India and completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024.
The India-specific entity said its board and leadership would assess how best to manage its existing portfolio. The announcement is relevant to the status of the investments documented in this report. The records examined establish the historical investments in Scroll, Newslaundry and The Ken, but do not establish the present ownership position of all three companies. MDIF is a New York-based non-profit investment organisation founded in 1995. It provides debt and equity financing to independent media organisations. MDIF says its financing is intended to protect the editorial independence of the organisations it supports. Its 2024 review said it had $118 million in assets under management invested in 61 media businesses across 35 countries. MDIF’s Indian investment activity predates its participation in Scroll. Its Digital News Ventures fund provided financing to Gram Vaani from 2012. Gram Vaani operates Mobile Vaani, a participatory-media platform aimed at rural communities.
In December 2021, MDIF announced that its $1 million MDIF Ventures fund had invested in The Morning Context, an India-focused research and media company. MDIF had also participated in Scroll’s 2014 financing alongside Omidyar Network. MDIF has a broad international funding base. Its funders and investors include Open Society Foundations, Luminate and other philanthropic and institutional organisations. Its relationship with Open Society goes back to its origins. MDIF’s own history records that George Soros provided $500,000 in initial funding in 1995 for what became the Media Development Loan Fund. In February 2019, MDIF announced that its Emerging Media Opportunity Fund had closed at $12.95 million.
The investors it named included Stichting DOEN, the Soros Economic Development Fund of Open Society Foundations, Denmark’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries and JP/Politiken Hus. MDIF said the fund had already invested about $5 million in five companies across India, Indonesia, Brazil and Peru. The announcement did not identify how much of that $5 million was invested in India or identify the source of capital used for any individual investment. Omidyar Network was not listed as an investor in the Emerging Media Opportunity Fund. The available records therefore do not establish that Omidyar financed Scroll through that fund. The financial relationship between Omidyar and MDIF also predates their investment in Scroll. MDIF’s 2013 portfolio review listed Omidyar Network among its loan-pool funders. Omidyar’s US tax filings also record two grants of $450,000 each to MDIF in 2017 and 2018. Both grants were for the South Africa Media Innovation Program.
The records do not show that those Omidyar grants to MDIF were later used for any Indian investment. They establish separate relationships: Omidyar funded MDIF, MDIF invested in Indian media, and Omidyar separately invested directly in Indian media. The documents do not provide a money trail linking any particular Omidyar grant to Scroll or another Indian media organisation. The different legal structures are also important. Omidyar Network, Omidyar Network Fund, its investment entities and other organisations within the wider Omidyar Group are separate entities. The Foundation’s Form 990-PF filings provide information about its grants and programme-related investments, but they are not a complete record of commercial investments made through separate investment entities.
The Foundation’s financial statements also identify affiliated entities that provided investment management, governance and administrative support. This distinction is important in the context of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill. Foreign equity investment in an Indian company and foreign contribution under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act are different categories. The existence of a foreign equity investment does not by itself establish a violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
