NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital Pour $80M into Indian Short-Form Video Startup

NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital co-led an $80 million Series C funding round for EloElo Group, the Bengaluru-based parent company of the Indian microdrama platform Story TV. The investment brings the company’s total capital raised to $130 million. MIT Investment Co. participated in the round alongside existing investors Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, and Griffin Gaming Partners. Avendus Capital acted as the sole financial advisor for the transaction.

EloElo was established in 2020 by Saurabh Pandey, a former executive at Flipkart. The company currently operates Story TV, which hosts more than 5,000 microdramas across six languages. The platform releases a new title every three hours. Users spend an average of 95 minutes per day on the app. Deepak Arya, executive VP of corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal, stated that the company sees opportunity in mobile-first storytelling and emerging formats to meet changing viewing habits. Arya said NBCUniversal is excited to bring its global capabilities to the partnership as EloElo expands beyond India, including into the U.S. market.

Pandey noted that a billion people reach for their phones before any other screen. He said the entertainment built for this audience will be video first, in their own language, and in episodes that fit their daily schedules. The group also operates the micro learning app Master, the AI companion agent Voxy AI, and Dolphin AI, an agentic AI creative suite introduced recently at the FICCI Frames conference. The group’s apps have more than 40 million monthly active users combined and have passed 300 million installs. EloElo reported that its revenue multiplied over the past year.

The company plans to allocate the new funds toward original programming in local languages, an overseas launch for its microdramas, and further development of Dolphin AI. Pandey explained that Story TV identifies viewer preferences in India, while Dolphin AI provides the economics to produce that content. He said this combination allowed the company to scale with solid unit economics. Manoj Thakur, founder and managing partner of Hornbill Capital, said the firm believes in EloElo’s ability to combine creative capabilities with the technology to scale content. Thakur founded Hornbill Capital in 2014. The firm has previously invested in PhysicsWallah, KreditBee, Dhan, and Nazara Technologies.

Research firm Omdia projects the global microdrama business will generate $14 billion before the end of 2026. Redseer estimates that 40 million Indians made at least one microdrama purchase during fiscal 2026. A report from Lumikai forecasts the local market will reach $4.5 billion by 2030.