EloElo Group, owner of the Story TV microdrama platform in India, among other assets, has completed an $80 million Series C financing round led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal.
The consumer AI and entertainment venture will use the funding to invest in new original content across multiple languages, launch internationally and scale its Dolphin AI agentic AI creative suite. MIT Investment Co. and existing investors Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners and others also participated in the new funding round.
Former Flipkart executive Saurabh Pandey founded EloElo Group in Bengaluru in 2020 and has scaled Story TV to a portfolio of more than 5,000 microdramas in six languages. The platform rolls out a new drama every three hours and is logging 95 minutes of time spent per user every day. Across its apps — including Master (micro learning), Dolphin AI, and Voxy AI (an AI companion agent)—it has over 40 million monthly active users.
With the Series C round, the company has now raised $130 million.
“A billion people now reach for the phone before any other screen, and the entertainment built for them will be video first, in their own language, in episodes that fit their day,” said Pandey, founder and CEO. “That is the business EloElo Group is building: an AI-powered entertainment ecosystem that brings the next billion viewers storytelling beyond just clips. Story TV shows us what India wants to watch, and Dolphin AI gives us the economics to make it, which is how we have scaled with solid unit economics. Consumer AI will change how content is created, distributed, and consumed, and we intend to lead that shift from India. This Series C deepens our content across languages, with a sharper focus on premium originals, doubles down on Dolphin AI, and takes what we have built to more audiences and more markets.”
“EloElo Group combines strong creative capabilities with the ability to scale content through technology, which is something we deeply believe in,” said Manoj Thakur, founder and managing partner of Hornbill Capital. “The team’s execution, financial discipline, and AI capabilities position it well for its next phase of growth. We are excited to support them in building category-leading businesses at the intersection of AI & content.”
“At NBCUniversal, we see significant opportunity in mobile-first storytelling and emerging formats like microdramas to engage audiences and meet evolving viewing habits,” added Deepak Arya, EVP for corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal. “Under Saurabh’s leadership, EloElo has developed a differentiated, mobile-first approach with a clear focus on content and storytelling, positioning the company for long-term success. We’re excited to bring NBCUniversal’s global capabilities to the partnership as EloElo expands beyond India, including into the U.S. market.”
