STAGE, a Delhi-based OTT platform, has raised Rs 40 crore in a round of funding led by Blume Ventures and other investors.
NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, TSM Ventures, WeFounderCircle, Mumbai Angels, Tarmac Ventures, Tailwind Ventures, Longtail Ventures, Lets Venture, and AngelList are among the other investors.
STAGE is a digital, hyper-localised, professionally-generated content platform that offers trending, entertaining, and informative content in multiple languages and dialects. It was founded in November 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal.
The startup intends to use the funds raised to expand further into Haryana and Rajasthan, create more original content, and grow the product.
“We plan to capture 10% of 25 million+ households watching video content in Haryana and Rajasthan by mid-2024. STAGE’s vision is to be a platform for entertainment, cultural connection, and celebration for all dialect-speaking people in the country. We intend to launch in the top 20 dialects of the country by 2027, with a potential reach of 200 million+ households,” said Vinay Singhal.
The platform, which began with Haryanvi content, claims to have 225,000+ subscribers and is adding 25k+ subscribers per month, growing at a rate of 30% month on month.
Many Haryanvi web series have been produced by the platform, including Akhada, Group-D, College Kaand, Opri Parai, and others. STAGE launched the Rajasthani dialect in June 2022 and already has 10,000+ subscribers as a result of this strong product-market fit and customer love.
“STAGE’s slogan describes the passion and motivation of the team to build for the immense diversity of language and dialect that India offers,” Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures said of the investment. STAGE’s mission is to create high-quality content in order to preserve our dialects and languages. We are excited to be partners on this journey, with two dialects already launched and dozens more to come.”
