MUMBAI: Indian micro-drama startups are attracting a new wave of venture capital (VC), as short-form episodic entertainment gains traction, powered by rapid user growth, improving monetization and rising investor interest in mobile-first video formats.
Stellaris Ventures-backed Flick TV, Elevation Capital-backed Rigi and Peak XV-backed Dashverse Reels are among a new cohort of micro-drama startups exploring $25-50 million fundraises, according to five people familiar with the matter. The interest reflects a fast-scaling category built on cliffhanger-led episodic content, where artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled production and microtransaction-based monetization are beginning to reshape early unit economics.
India’s micro-drama market crossed $300 million in 2025, with 450 million downloads and 100 million monthly active users, according to Lumikaï’s State of India Interactive Media Report 2025, released in March this year. The report estimates the segment could reach $4.5 billion by 2030.
Funding wave
The startups are seeking fresh capital as engagement and revenues rise, the people said.
“These firms are growing 20–25% month-on-month and seeking valuations of 3–5x FY26 revenue,” said one of the people cited earlier.
“Flick TV is looking to raise around $40 million while Dashverse is seeking about $35 million,” another person said, adding that Rigi also explored fundraising in December.
Rigi has raised about $25 million so far, while Dashverse and Flick TV have raised roughly $20 million and $3 million, respectively.
In FY25, Rigi reported revenue of ₹29.3 crore, while Dashverse and Flick TV reported revenue of ₹7.9 crore and ₹7 crore, respectively.
A third person said valuation multiples vary widely as many firms have expanded beyond pure-play micro-drama offerings. “Companies with lower acquisition and marketing costs command higher valuation multiples. Broadly, firms are seeing 3x–5x revenue multiples if they sustain venture-scale growth,” this person said, adding that valuation multiples are not too high due to high competition and nascency in the segment making investors question sustainability of the metrics.
Flick TV and Dashverse did not respond to Mint’s queries till press time. Rigi co-founder Ananya Singhal denied being in active fundraising mode, but said the company has seen strong growth over the past two months following the launch of Rigi TV. “Rigi TV already has 15 million users within a short span.”
Noida-based Flick TV was founded in January 2025 by Pratik Anand, formerly with Pocket FM, and Kushal Singhal, who previously worked at ShareChat and EloElo Group. Rigi was started in 2021 by Swapnil Saurav and Ananya Singhal, who earlier co-founded real-money gaming platform HalaPlay.
Bengaluru-based Dashverse Reels, founded in 2022 by former Pocket FM executives Sanidhya Narain and Lalith Gudipati, is joined by IIT Kharagpur graduate Soumyadeep Mukherjee, previously with Udaan.
Capital push
The momentum is spilling into larger platforms, which are also stepping up fundraising and plans for initial public offerings (IPOs).
In April, Mint reported Tencent-backed Pocket FM had revived plans to raise $100 million–$120 million at a $1.5 billion–$2 billion valuation after turning cash-flow positive.
Separately, Bloomberg reported Kuku FM operator Mebigo Labs had hired bankers for a potential $200 million IPO, while Moneycontrol reported Eloelo Group had appointed Avendus to raise over $50 million.
“We currently have around 1,200 dramas on StoryTV and launch 150–200 new dramas every month,” Saurabh Pandey, founder and chief executive of Eloelo Group, told Mint. “That scale has helped us gain market share and engagement.”
Pandey said StoryTV crossed 90 million downloads within nine months of launching in 2025. “Users spend roughly 85-87 minutes per day on StoryTV,” he said.
Sensor Tower data showed short-drama apps recorded a 403% year-on-year rise in downloads in 2025, with FreeReels, StoryTV and Kuku TV among top-ranked apps.
Other established media firms are also beginning to see financial benefits from the trend. ShareChat co-founder Manohar Singh Charan said the company has diversified beyond advertising into microtransactions and subscriptions, helping drive 38% revenue growth in FY26 to ₹1,000 crore while turning cash-flow generative over the last three quarters.
In FY25, ShareChat reported revenue of ₹723 crore and adjusted Ebitda losses of ₹219 crore. The shift followed the launch of Quick TV in February 2025.
“Over the last year, we’ve seen strong momentum across the ShareChat ecosystem, with QuickTV and Moj together driving over 60 million monthly active users and 450 million daily episode plays. Nearly 70% of micro-drama consumption comes from tier 2 and tier 3 markets,” Charan said.
Investor caution
Founders expect fresh capital to flow into content expansion and recommendation systems. “Content is king in this category,” Pandey of Eloelo Group said.
Investors, however, say the category is evolving beyond standalone formats.
“Companies often begin with one product category and later move toward the most scalable revenue pool,” said Ashish Kumar, co-founder and general partner at Fundamentum Investment Advisors LLP.
He said many firms are shifting towards a “house of apps” strategy as AI lowers the cost of building new products.
Kumar added that raising capital on a micro-drama-only thesis may become harder unless firms show differentiation in audience, technology or platform breadth. “If an investor is already invested in a major micro-drama company, it becomes much harder for them to back another platform that is pursuing exactly the same horizontal strategy.”