Bengaluru-based EloElo Group, the company behind the micro drama app Story TV, has raised $80 million in a Series C funding round co-led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, the parent company of Universal Pictures, one of Hollywood’s largest movie studios.
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MIT Investment Co. and existing investors Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners also participated.
EloElo said it will use the fresh capital to fund original content across Indian languages with a sharper focus on premium originals, launch its micro dramas internationally, and invest further in Dolphin AI, its recently launched agentic AI creative suite.
What EloElo does
Micro dramas are short, serialised shows made to be watched on a phone, usually in vertical format and released in episodes of a few minutes each.
Story TV has a library of more than 5,000 micro dramas in six languages and launches a new drama every three hours. The company claims users spend 95 minutes every day on the app.
Alongside Story TV, EloElo runs Master, a micro learning app, Dolphin AI and Voxy AI, an AI companion agent. The company also claims that its apps together have more than 40 million monthly active users and have crossed 300 million installs. Story TV alone has more than 33 million active users, according to Sensor Tower data..
“A billion people now reach for the phone before any other screen, and the entertainment built for them will be video first, in their own language, in episodes that fit their day,” said Saurabh Pandey, Founder and CEO of EloElo Group.
“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,” he added.
From live streaming to micro dramas
EloElo started out in 2020 as a live social entertainment platform, where creators hosted interactive video and audio livestreams in local languages, with games, chat and virtual gifting. It was founded by Pandey, a former Flipkart executive, and Akshay Dubey.
It began charging users in May 2024. In FY25, its first year of operating revenue, the company reported operating revenue of Rs 69.5 crore against total expenses of Rs 174.3 crore, and a loss of Rs 98.5 crore, roughly flat on the year before.
Story TV launched in 2025. By October that year it had over 1 crore users and more than 300 original titles, when the company tied up with Balaji Telefilms to produce original micro dramas for the platform.
How AI is used in production
EloElo said it owns all three layers of its business, including the content, the distribution and the AI-powered production engine.
According to Pandey, AI now drives 70-75% of the company’s workflows. Some shows are fully AI-generated, some are hybrid, with an actor on a green screen while AI replaces visual effects and location costs, and others are shot live with AI used in parts of the process.
He said the company has gone from two to three new dramas a day to 250 a month, while the average cost of a micro drama is still within the $15,000 range. EloElo plans to hire for its AI and machine learning research team.
Why NBCUniversal invested
NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, owns NBC, Telemundo, the Peacock streaming service and Universal Pictures.
“At NBCUniversal, 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, 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 US market,” he added.
Pandey said it was early to say where EloElo will launch abroad, but that it is looking at the US as well as the rest of Asia and Europe, targeting both diaspora and local-language audiences. Story TV has already experimented with English-language shows.
“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,” Pandey said.
“The team’s execution, financial discipline, and AI capabilities position it well for its next phase of growth,” said Thakur, Founder and Managing Partner of Hornbill Capital.
The micro drama market
Research firm Omdia expects the micro drama industry to generate $14 billion globally by the end of 2026. In India, Redseer estimates that 40 million people paid for a micro drama at least once in FY26, while Lumikai’s State of India Interactive Media Report projects the Indian market will reach $4.5 billion by 2030.
Paying habits remain thin. Only 15-17 million people pay every month, according to Redseer, and an Ormax Media survey found that 72% of viewers have never paid for a micro drama.
Story TV competes with Kuku TV, JioHotstar’s Tadka and Bullet, as well as free short video on YouTube and Instagram.
