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India’s EloElo nabs $80M from NBCUniversal to bet on the country’s rising microdrama market

SoftwareNovember 4, 20261 min read

EloElo, the company behind India's Story TV app, raised $80 million from Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal to grow its short serialized video business. The bet is on India's fast-growing microdrama market.

A big new investment

EloElo raised $80 million in a Series C funding round. The investors were Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal. The round brings the company's total funding to $130 million and gives it a value of $500 million. Its Story TV app is one of the top apps for microdramas, which are short shows split into many small episodes.

Key numbers

More than 118 million people watch microdramas every month in India.
Story TV has over 33 million active users, according to analysts.
Story TV has more than 5,000 titles in six languages.
Users spend about 95 minutes on the app on average each day, across several sessions.
Analysts expect India's microdrama industry to reach $3 to $4 billion in yearly revenue by 2030.

What are microdramas?

Microdramas are short, serialized shows watched on phones, in vertical video format. Many people now watch them in the U.S., China, and India. Hollywood stars such as Issa Rae, James Franco, and Kim Kardashian have invested in or acted in the format. Story TV was founded in 2020 by Saurabh Pandey, a former Flipkart executive.

Why it matters

India has more than a billion internet users, so it is a very large market. The business is still hard, though. Many users watch free shows but few pay. Story TV also faces strong competition from free apps like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The company is trying to win by making high-quality shows and by using AI tools to make content faster.

What to watch

Whether Story TV can turn more free viewers into paying subscribers.
How its Dolphin AI tool is released to other companies and used for ads.
Whether rivals such as Kuku TV and Quick TV keep growing.
Whether the market reaches the $3 to $4 billion revenue that analysts predict by 2030.

Glossary

EloElo: The Indian company that runs the Story TV microdrama app.
Story TV: A mobile app in India that shows short, serialized microdrama series.
Series C: A later stage of funding in which a startup raises a large amount of money from investors.
Dolphin AI: EloElo's AI tool that helps make images, audio, and video, and edit content.

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