EloElo's $80 Million Series C Reportedly Prices It at $500 Million, About 68 Times Its Last Disclosed Revenue
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EloElo's $80 Million Series C Reportedly Prices It at $500 Million, About 68 Times Its Last Disclosed Revenue
NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital co-led the Bengaluru microdrama company's round on Nov. 4. The valuation is reported rather than announced, and the only revenue figure on file is for the year ended March 2025.
EloElo Group, the Bengaluru company behind the Story TV microdrama app, announced an $80 million Series C on Nov. 4, co-led by NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital. The valuation is not in the announcement. The Next Web attributes a $500 million figure to TechCrunch, and neither outlet says whether it is pre-money or post-money.
The round is announced, not shown as closed in any filing we could read. Inc42 puts the amount at nearly ₹756 crore and says the company has now raised $130 million in total, per the Inc42 report.
Who is in the round and who is not
MIT Investment Co. joined as a new investor. Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners, all existing backers, also participated.
The previous round was a $13.5 million Series B in April 2025, according to The Next Web. Series C is therefore roughly six times the size of the Series B, as the chart below shows.
- Series B (April 2025)13.5 $M
- Series C (Nov. 4, 2026)80 $M
Source: The Next Web and Inc42, accessed 2026-11-07
Companies at this stage in microdramas, a format of short vertical episodes sold by subscription or by the episode, tend to raise from media groups as much as from funds. NBCUniversal's presence is the part of the cap table worth watching. Deepak Arya, NBCUniversal's executive vice president of corporate strategy and development, said the company is "excited to bring NBCUniversal's global capabilities to the partnership" as EloElo expands beyond India, including into the U.S.
What the reported valuation implies
The only revenue figure in the coverage is ₹69.5 crore for the year to March 2025, which The Next Web credits to Entrackr. The company says revenue has grown several times over since, but gives no number.
Inc42 converts $80 million to ₹756 crore, which is ₹9.45 crore per $1 million. On that rate $500 million is about ₹4,725 crore, or roughly 68 times the March 2025 figure. That multiple is arithmetic on a stale denominator, so it overstates the real one by an amount nobody outside the company can size. It is still the multiple the headline asks readers to accept.
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Series C | $80 million (about ₹756 crore) | Inc42 |
| Reported valuation | $500 million | TechCrunch, via The Next Web |
| Lifetime funding | $130 million | Inc42 |
| Revenue, year to March 2025 | ₹69.5 crore | Entrackr, via The Next Web |
What the company says it sells
Story TV carries more than 5,000 microdramas in six languages, per The Next Web, which also reports 95 minutes a day of use. EloElo says its four apps reach more than 40 million monthly active users and 300 million installs. Both outlets give those as company figures.
The other apps are Master, a micro-learning app, Voxy AI, a companion, and Dolphin AI, a creative suite for images, audio and video. Inc42 says 8 to 10 of the staff work on Dolphin AI and that the company works with more than 90 production studios, Balaji Telefilms among them.
The two outlets disagree on headcount: 240 in one, about 200 in the other.
Saurabh Pandey, founder and chief executive and a former Flipkart executive, said: "Story TV shows us what India wants to watch, and Dolphin AI gives us the economics to make it."
Market claims and what is unproven
Omdia forecasts microdramas will generate $14 billion worldwide by the end of 2026, and Redseer estimates 40 million Indians paid for one at least once in the year to March 2026, both as cited by The Next Web. A paying-once count says little about retention.
The money is earmarked for original shows in Indian languages, a launch outside India including the U.S., and Dolphin AI research. The test is whether paid revenue follows 40 million users. EloElo began charging in May 2024, so its next Registrar of Companies filing for the year to March 2026 is the first document that can confirm or contradict the growth claim.
For comparison with other Indian rounds on the site, see Razorpay's IPO and its unsized FY25 loss and Angel One's passing of Zerodha.
Sources
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