Pratilipi Bags $20 Mn Funding To Introduce Vertical Drama, Expand US Presence

Bengaluru-based self-publishing platform Pratilipi has bagged $20 Mn (around INR 171 Cr) in its Series E round, which was a mix of primary and secondary deals, led by Singapore-based Jungle Ventures. 

The round also saw participation from fintech startup Khatabook’s cofounder Ravish Naresh, edtech platform Leap’s cofounder Arnav Kumar, and several other angel investors. 

In a statement, the startup said that it raised $12 Mn via equity infusion at a valuation of $100 Mn, while $8 Mn was secondary funding. 

Pratilipi plans to utilise the fresh proceeds to develop new storytelling formats such as animation and vertical drama shows. A chunk of the funds will also be deployed to bolster its presence in the US. 

“Majority of the funds are primarily for two things – we have started expanding into the US market and second is that… we are expanding into newer formats… primarily in animation and vertical TV drama,” Pratilipi cofounder and CEO Ranjeet Pratap Singh told Inc42

He said that the startup currently has five business units – literature, online comics, FM, Westland books (which it acquired), and podcast.

Speaking about the US expansion, Singh said that Pratilipi will focus on both the Indian diaspora as well as the native population of the North American nation. 

In the US market, Pratilipi will compete with Wattpad, a platform that claims to have 89 Mn readers. Speaking on this, Singh said that Wattpad majorly caters to teenagers and young readers while Pratilipi is generating content for everyone, with focus on mature audience. 

Pratilipi’s IPO Run 

Amid the ongoing wave of startup public listings, Pratilipi, too, is mulling listing on the bourses “early” next year. Singh said that the startup has already held talks with bankers and could kickstart the process for an initial public offering (IPO) soon. 

“We met a few bankers about four or five months back to understand what the public market is looking for and when we should formally engage with them… We are planning to formally engage with the bankers in August for the IPO,” he added. 

The startup is expected to close FY25 with a revenue of about INR 85 Cr, Singh said. 

In FY24, the startup managed to reduce its net loss by 62% to INR 58.1 Cr from INR 152.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue surged over 65% to INR 57.8 Cr during the year from INR 34.9 Cr in FY23. 

Pratilipi’s Content Universe

Founded in 2015 by Singh, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, Rahul Ranjan, and Sahradayi Modi, Pratilipi connects readers and writers in 12 languages, including Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi. 

The startup has raised a total funding of $92 Mn, including the latest round, since inception and counts the likes of Alteria Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and TLabs among its backers.

In January this year, it raised INR 10.11 Cr (about $1.2 Mn) in a bridge funding round from Alteria Capital. 

The Bengaluru-based platform claims to host over 1.6 Mn writers and more than 12 Mn monthly active readers.

Moving beyond just books, the platform acquired podcast studio IVM Podcasts in 2020, and followed it up by launching its audio storytelling platform PratilipiFM in 2021. It also launched Pratilipi Comics in the same year. 

With a focus on content IP, the startup acquired Write Order Publications in 2021 and Westland Books in 2022. In 2023, it began licensing its stories to partners for formats it couldn’t develop directly, such as TV shows, OTT content, and films.

Pratilip also partnered with Disney Star in 2023 for a multi-series content deal, which will allow the latter to develop multiple new fiction television shows adapted from stories available on the self-publishing platform.