Stage a popular OTT network Raises INR 3.5 Cr in Angel Round

STAGE, a homegrown OTT network, announced on Friday that it had raised 3.5 crore from Inflection Point Ventures in an angel round. The round included Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, as well as Sprout Investments Fund and Giri Malpani (Malpani Ventures) as investors.

The funds will be used to grow the startup's content library and launch a subscription service on its website.

Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal formed STAGE in 2018. The first and only dialect-based network, according to the homegrown OTT company. In the Haryanvi dialect, it claims to have over 1.5 million downloads. Rajasthani dialect is also available on the website. Later this year, the startup plans to broaden its portfolio to include Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magadhi. In the next five years, it hopes to reach 500 million users.

STAGE had previously raised 8.5 crore from Venture Catalysts in an investment round. MakeMyTrip, Sarcha Advisors, POSist, VIU, Janarthan Balasubramanian, KAAF Investments, and ConversionX also participated in the funding round.

"We found the right partner in IPV because their turnaround time and founder-friendly processes helped us close the round quickly," says Vinay Singhal, Co-Founder & CEO of STAGE. IPV regularly uses the power of its investor network to assist its portfolio companies. They share our vision of creating the most hyper-local vernacular OTT forum ever created for Bharat."

"We believe that languages are only an urban concept in our country; once we leave the urban settlements, everyone speaks a dialect," he continues. The best part is that the majority of these dialects are as large as certain European languages. Creating high-quality content in these areas isn't just a great business opportunity. Creating high-quality content in these dialects is not only a great business opportunity, but it is also critical to preserving our country's rich diversity and culture for future generations.

STAGE is a leading interactive, hyper-localized, and professionally-generated content platform that provides trending, entertaining, and educational content in a variety of languages and dialects. STAGE, the first of its kind, artist-led and dialect-based OTT platform, debuted in 2019 and offers sensible and premium content through stand-up artforms like Poetry, Comedy, Storytelling, Folk, and more.

STAGE intends to use the funds to expand its content library and launch a web subscription service.

OTT, on the other hand, has exploded in popularity in the country in recent years. After the pandemic, the number of people using the apps has risen sharply, owing to stay-at-home norms. According to a PWC report published in October, India is the fastest-growing OTT market in the world, on track to become the sixth-largest by 2024. According to Livemint, the industry is projected to expand at a CAGR of 28.6% to $2.9 billion in revenue.

Netflix started testing a new Mobile+ plan in India earlier this week. The package, which costs $299, allows users to stream HD content to their mobile devices as well as access it from a tablet or laptop.