EloElo Group, a Bengaluru consumer AI and entertainment company that runs the micro-drama platform Story TV, has raised $80 million in a Series C round led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, the company said in a statement. MIT Investment Co. joined existing investors Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners in the round. Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor.
YourStory reported, citing sources, that the round values EloElo at $500 million, nearly five times its valuation in April 2025. The fresh capital brings the company’s total funding to $130 million.
Saurabh Pandey, a former Flipkart executive, founded EloElo in 2020. The company calls Story TV India's top micro-drama platform. Story TV has a library of over 5,000 micro-dramas in six languages, puts out a new drama every three hours, and users spend an average of 95 minutes a day on the platform, up from 65-70 minutes a few months ago, the company said. Across its apps, EloElo has more than 40 million monthly active users, according to the company. Its apps have been installed more than 120 million times in total, according to The HinduBusinessLine.
The company will use the funds for original content in local languages, take its micro-dramas to other countries and keep building Dolphin AI, its agentic creative suite. Pandey added that the new money will help produce more shows in various languages, especially premium originals, improve Dolphin AI and bring its products to additional viewers and regions. In an interview with businessline, Pandey said the aim is to more than double the number of shows over the next year, concentrating on Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
“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. That is the business EloElo Group is building: an AI-powered entertainment ecosystem that brings the next billion viewers storytelling beyond just clips,” Pandey said.
He noted that 70 to 80 percent of the steps in making a micro-drama now use AI, bringing the cost per show down to ₹15-17 lakh. The company will target Indian diaspora and native-language viewers as it expands first into the US. “We believe there is no Netflix of microdramas yet, and no one brand in this space that dominates global markets. We believe Story TV has that potential,” Pandey said.
Manoj Thakur, founder and managing partner of Hornbill Capital, said in a statement that EloElo's execution, financial discipline and AI capabilities set it up well for its next stage of growth. “EloElo Group combines strong creative capabilities with the ability to scale content through technology, which is something we deeply believe in,” Thakur said. Deepak Arya, executive vice president for corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal, said the media company sees a big chance in mobile-first storytelling and new formats such as micro-dramas, and would contribute its global resources as EloElo moves into other countries, starting with the U.S..
Micro-dramas are one of the quickest-growing entertainment formats worldwide. The company cited Omdia's forecast that the sector will bring in $14 billion globally by the end of 2026, Redseer's estimate that 40 million Indians paid for a micro-drama at least once in financial year 2026, and Lumikai's projection that the Indian market will hit $4.5 billion by 2030.
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Elliot Marsh covers startups, IPO filings and the money behind them for Venturist. Elliot writes from SEC filings, company announcements and published reporting.