Story TV Parent EloElo Raises $80 Million for Global Push

The Indian microdrama sector is attracting major capital as streaming habits shift toward shorter formats on mobile devices. EloElo Group, the Bengaluru-based operator of Story TV, closed an $80 million Series C funding round on Wednesday.

NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital jointly led the financing. The investment brings the company’s total capital raised to $130 million. MIT Investment Co. also participated in the round. Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, and Griffin Gaming Partners returned as investors. Avendus Capital served as the sole financial adviser for the transaction.

EloElo was founded in 2020 by Saurabh Pandey, a former Flipkart executive who currently serves as chief executive. The company plans to deploy the new capital toward original shows in local languages, an international rollout of its microdramas, and further development of its Dolphin AI creative suite.

Deepak Arya, executive vice president of corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal, stated that the partnership will apply the company’s global capabilities to EloElo’s expansion outside India, including into the United States. He cited mobile-first storytelling and changing audience habits as drivers for the investment. Pandey described the target audience as phone-first users who seek video entertainment in their own languages and in episodes that fit into daily routines.

Story TV currently hosts more than 5,000 microdramas across six languages. The platform releases a new title every three hours. Average daily usage is 95 minutes per user. Across EloElo’s apps, monthly active users exceed 40 million, and cumulative installs have surpassed 300 million. The company reported that its revenue multiplied over the past year.

EloElo also operates Master, a micro learning app, and Voxy AI, an AI companion agent. Dolphin AI, the group’s agentic AI creative suite, was introduced at the FICCI Frames conference. Pandey said Story TV provides data on Indian viewing preferences, while Dolphin AI supports the economics of content production, helping the group scale with solid unit economics.

Manoj Thakur, founder and managing partner of Hornbill Capital, said EloElo pairs creative strengths with technology that enables content production to scale. Thakur established Hornbill Capital in 2014. Its portfolio includes PhysicsWallah, KreditBee, Dhan, and Nazara Technologies. Research firms project growth in the sector, with Omdia forecasting worldwide microdrama revenue of $14 billion by the end of 2026. Redseer estimates that 40 million people in India purchased microdrama content at least once during fiscal 2026, while Lumikai forecasts the Indian market will reach $4.5 billion by 2030.