Hornbill, NBCUniversal back India's EloElo in $80 mn bet on phone dramas. The Story TV owner plans more original shows, deeper AI production and a push into the US. EloElo founder and chief executive officer Saurabh Pandey Bengaluru-based EloElo Group, owner of micro-drama app Story TV, has raised $80 million in a Series C funding round co-led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, as the company looks to produce more original shows, expand its artificial intelligence (AI)-based production tools and take its short-form dramas to overseas markets, including the US. MIT Investment Management Co. and existing investors Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, WaterBridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners also participated in the round, the company said on Wednesday. The funding takes EloElo's total capital raised to $130 million. The company has been valued at around $500 million following the round, according to people familiar with the matter. Micro dramas - serialised shows designed primarily for smartphone viewing - are expected to generate $14 billion globally by the end of 2026, according to research firm Omdia. "If you think about it, there is currently no Netflix of microdramas, and there is an opportunity to build one of the most loved brands globally in this space," EloElo founder and chief executive officer Saurabh Pandey told Business Standard. Pandey said it was too early to say where EloElo would launch first overseas, but the company was definitely evaluating the US, along with other markets in Asia and Europe. It plans to target a combination of diaspora audiences and local-language viewers. Story TV has already experimented with English-language shows. "We see significant opportunity in mobile-first storytelling and emerging formats like micro dramas to engage audiences and meet evolving viewing habits," said Deepak Arya, executive vice-president of corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal. "We're excited to bring NBCUniversal's global capabilities to the partnership as EloElo expands beyond India, including into the U.S. market," he added. Pandey said investors were attracted to the company's vision of building an AI-native entertainment ecosystem for the next billion users, many of whom may not rely on television as their primary source of entertainment. He said EloElo was entering a new phase focused on scaling profitably, while its investors had already begun facilitating introductions to support the company's AI development. Founded in 2020 by Pandey, a former Flipkart executive, EloElo describes Story TV as the leading micro-drama platform in India. The app has more than 5,000 micro dramas across six languages, with users spending an average of 95 minutes a day on the platform, according to the company. The group also operates micro-learning app Master, AI creative suite Dolphin AI and AI companion agent Voxy AI. Across its apps, EloElo has more than 40 million monthly active users. "Story TV shows us what India wants to watch, and Dolphin AI gives us the economics to make it, which is how we have scaled with solid unit economics," Pandey said. The company said it recorded multi-fold revenue growth over the past year. Pandey declined to disclose revenue figures, saying EloElo would file its FY26 financial results by December. Subscriptions account for the majority of revenue, alongside an advertising-supported model under which users watch advertisements to unlock episodes. Pandey said coin-based monetisation models had historically not worked well in India. "The team's execution, financial discipline, and AI capabilities position it well for its next phase of growth," said Manoj Thakur, founder and managing partner of Hornbill Capital. EloElo said it controls all three layers of its business - content, distribution and the AI-powered production engine. AI now drives around 70-75 per cent of the company's workflows, Pandey said. Some shows are fully AI-generated, while others use a hybrid production model in which actors perform against green screens and AI is used to replace visual effects and location requirements. Other productions remain live-action, with AI being used selectively in the workflow. The company has scaled production from two-three new dramas a day to around 250 a month, Pandey said. The average cost of producing a micro drama has not increased and remains within the $15,000 range, he added. Pandey said AI was not replacing strong creative professionals and that the number of stories produced by the company could rise two-three times in the immediate term. Story TV has worked with more than 50,000 people in the creative industry over roughly the past year, he said. Micro dramas are among the fastest-growing formats in global entertainment. Pandey estimated that China accounts for around $8-10 billion of the global micro-drama market, while India became a market worth close to $700-800 million over the past year. Redseer estimates that around 40 million Indians paid for a micro drama at least once in FY26. Lumikai projects that India's micro-drama market could reach $4.5 billion by 2030. Competition in the segment includes Kuku TV, JioHotstar Tadka and Bullet. Pandey expects two-three players to emerge as large platforms, with others focusing on niches such as non-fiction or local-language micro dramas. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial adviser on the funding round.

Indian social platform EloElo has raised $80 million in a Series C round from Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, betting on the country's fast-growing microdrama market. The round brings its total funding to $130 million and values the company at $500 million. EloElo's Story TV is one of the top microdrama apps, with more than 33 million active users, according to analysts. More than 118 million people in India watch the serialized short videos every month. The format has also taken off in the US and China. Celebrities such as Issa Rae, James Franco, and Kim Kardashian have invested in or starred in microdramas. India has more than a billion internet users, and analysts expect its microdrama industry to pass $3 billion to $4 billion in annual revenue.

India's EloElo nabs $80M from NBCUniversal to bet on the country's rising microdrama market. 8:45 PM PST · November 3, 2026 More than 118 million users watch microdramas every month as the serialized format has taken off in India. EloElo's Story TV is one of the top apps for microdramas, with over 33 million active users, according to analysts. Banking on that scale, the company has raised $80 million in Series C from Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal. This round brings its total fundraising to $130 million, with a valuation of $500 million. As people spend more time on platforms hosting verticalized videos, serialized content has become popular in multiple geographies, including the U.S., China, and India, with Hollywood celebrities like Issa Rae, James Franco, and Kim Kardashian investing in and starring in the format. Given India's massive internet population of more than a billion and the country's appetite for entertainment content, it presents a big market opportunity, with analysts expecting the industry to cross $3-$4 billion in annual revenue by 2030. Last year, dedicated apps like Story TV, Kuku TV, and Quick TV were among the top downloaded video streaming apps in the country. Founded in 2020 by former Flipkart exec Saurabh Pandey, the Story TV platform has taken off in the last few years with a catalog of over 5,000 titles in six languages. Pandey told TechCrunch that because of the snackable content format, users log 95 minutes on the app on average through multiple sessions in a day. "I fundamentally believe that the next billion users will probably not grow up on a diet of watching television; they will grow up on a diet of watching content on their phones, right? And this content has to be, and this entertainment, designed very differently. It's not going to be appointment viewing. It's going to be within certain slots throughout the day. And a lot of this was earlier solved for short clips, but serialized storytelling was never solved," Pandey said about the microdrama format. He believes that there still will be a place for big-screen viewing with family or friends, but the majority of entertainment consumption would be done through mobile. Wiz's CTO on PHP2Shell and the coming 'vulnpocalypse' Equity Podcast All microdrama platforms compete against platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, where creators are posting content for free. Some of them are also creating a way for creators to post serialized content. Pandey thinks that producing quality content on the platform will entice users to choose StoryTV over other free platforms. The company points to its partnerships, such as the one with Indian TV production company Balaji Telefilms, to produce content. The company offers different kinds of subscriptions ranging from monthly, quarterly, and yearly to unlock content. It also offers some free content supported by ads, which might not be as lucrative a medium to make money as subscriptions, according to reports. Monetization is a challenge in India, as users often stick around for free content, but few convert to paid users. A report from analyst firm Redseer indicates that more than 40 million people have paid for microdrama at least once, but only 15-17 million users pay for it on a monthly basis. A separate survey by Ormax Media suggested that 72% of people haven't ever paid while consuming microdrama. AI and other bets. All microdrama platforms want to have enough supply to engage different audiences and want to involve AI to solve that. Some platforms, like Google-backed Kuku, want to improve workflows and create more content, and some platforms like Dashverse's Shortfree want to use video AI models to create serialized clips. At the moment, StoryTV falls into the first camp with its Dolphin AI platform. Started as an internal tool to improve video creation, the company is now planning to make the tool widely available. It can act as an editor with templates and an array of models to create images, audio, and video, according to its website. EloElo's vision is to have people use this tool for marketing campaigns and ads as well. Notably, while Indian platforms like Pocket and Kuku have built AI tools and given them to creators, it is likely to accelerate their content pipeline. But at InVideo, there hasn't been a scaled effort to provide a good alternative to CapCut or Instagram Edits to creators from India. Pandey believes that human involvement is still paramount to producing good stories, and AI tools are still creative directors for steering. "My belief in involving AI is that AI is a really fast race car where AI is the engine, but you need an extremely capable Formula One driver to be on the steering wheel. That, for me, is the creative director or the showrunner. AI is supposed to work with them, augmenting their skill set. AI can help write stories, but so far the best stories I have loved have all had a very high human x AI element to it," he said. Besides microdrama, the company also has a vertical video learning app, Master, competing with the likes of Seekho and Kuku's Guru, and an AI companion app, Voxy AI. The company said that it has more than 40 million monthly users across its apps. While it didn't bifurcate users by app, the majority of users belong to Story TV. EloElo currently has 240 people and wants to hire to increase the size of its AI and machine learning research team. The company is also deploying a good chunk of its capital to produce more original titles. MIT Investment Co., along with existing investors like Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, and Griffin Gaming Partners, invested in the round. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't affect our editorial independence. Ivan Mehta Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal. November 4 Buy One Pass, Get a Second Free Cover more ground at TechCrunch's ultimate founder bootcamp of the year by bringing your co-founder or partner for free Book before the BOGO deal expires