STAGE Bags $12.5 Mn In Funding To Expand Its Content Play

Regional OTT Platform STAGE Nets $12.5 Mn To Expand Content Offerings

SUMMARY

STAGE has raised $12.5 Mn as a part of its Series B funding round co-led by Goodwater Capital and Blume Ventures

The funding comprised $10 Mn in primary capital and $2.5 Mn in secondary capital

The startup plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to expand content offerings into Awadhi, Maithili and Magahi languages

Regional over-the-top (OTT) platform Stage has raised $12.5 Mn (around INR 107.5 Cr) as a part of its Series B funding round co-led by Goodwater Capital and Blume Ventures.

The round also saw participation from Physis Capital, Venture Catalysts, Inflection Point Ventures, Mumbai Angels, The Chennai Angels, Fynd cofounder Harsh Shah and other existing angel investors.

The funding comprised $10 Mn in primary capital and $2.5 Mn in secondary capital, the company said in a statement.

STAGE plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to expand content offerings into Awadhi, Maithili and Magahi languages. Additionally, it aims to experiment with live sports, devotional and kids contents.

“This funding is not just about capital — it is a resounding validation of India’s regional cultures. For too long, dialects like Haryanvi or Bhojpuri have been seen as a liability. We are proving otherwise,” said STAGE cofounder and chief executive Vinay Singhal.

Founded in 2019 by Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav and Praveen Singhal, STAGE offers web series, films and short films in Haryanvi and Rajasthani languages and dialects.

The startup shot to fame after its appearance on Shark Tank Season 2, where it got a commitment of INR 1.5 Cr from Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar and Peyush Bansal for 0.6% equity in the company.

It claims to have 20 Mn users with more than 4.4 Mn paid subscribers.

The platform competes with the likes of other regional OTT platforms, including aha Video, Planet Marathi and Hoichoi.

On the financial front, STAGE’s losses for the financial year ending March 2023-24 (FY24) remained flat with a marginal decline of 3% to INR 22.09 Cr from INR 23 Cr recorded in the previous fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the startup recorded a 5X growth in its revenue from operations to INR 17.89 Cr in FY24 from INR 2.8 Cr in the previous fiscal.

STAGE’s bid to expand its regional language content playbook comes at a time when the Indian OTT space is poised for even greater expansion, driven by evolving consumer habits, regional content demand and tech-led innovations.

This also comes on the heart of the recent launch of JioHotstar, a unified streaming platform that merges JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. The move marked a major consolidation in India’s OTT space, bringing together a vast library of content from the two streaming giants under one banner.

With the combined strength of the two players, JioHotstar hosts over 3 Lakh hours of content across languages.

Meanwhile, incumbents like Netflix and Amazon Prime are also experimenting with newer formats to gain traction in the rapidly expanding Indian OTT market.

For instance, Netflix recently partnered with the WWE to stream its events on its platform.

India’s OTT streaming market has continued its rapid ascent, with a record 707 Mn internet users actively engaging with OTT audio and video services in 2023, according to the ‘Internet in India Report 2023’.