Story TV Parent Raises $80 Million

EloElo Group, the parent company of Indian microdrama platform Story TV, closed an $80 million Series C funding round. NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital co-led the transaction, which brings the Bengaluru-based firm's total capital raised to $130 million.

The round included participation from MIT Investment Co. and existing backers Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, and Griffin Gaming Partners. Avendus Capital acted as the sole financial advisor for the deal.

Saurabh Pandey, a former Flipkart executive, founded EloElo in 2020. He stated that the company targets an audience of a billion people who use smartphones before other screens. Pandey noted that these users prefer video content in their own language, structured in short episodes that fit their daily schedules.

Story TV currently hosts over 5,000 microdramas in six languages. The platform adds a new title every three hours. Users spend an average of 95 minutes per day on the app.

Deepak Arya, executive VP of corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal, said the partnership leverages NBCUniversal's global capabilities. He expressed interest in expanding the company's reach beyond India, including into the U.S. market.

The group operates other products alongside Story TV. These include the micro learning app Master, the AI companion agent Voxy AI, and the agentic AI creative suite Dolphin AI. The suite was recently introduced at the FICCI Frames conference. The group's apps report more than 40 million monthly active users combined and have passed 300 million installs. EloElo stated that its revenue multiplied over the past year.

The company will allocate the new funds to original programming in local languages, an overseas launch for its microdramas, and further development of Dolphin AI. Manoj Thakur, founder and managing partner of Hornbill Capital, said the firm believes in combining creative capabilities with the ability to scale content through technology. Omdia projects the global microdrama business will generate $14 billion before the end of 2026. Redseer estimates 40 million Indians made at least one microdrama purchase during fiscal 2026. Lumikai forecasts the local market will reach $4.5 billion by 2030.