Stage, a regional language focused over-the-top (OTT) platform, is set to raise USD 15 million. According to sources, the funding round is being led by a new investor with participation of existing investors. One of the sources stated, “Goodwater Capital has offered a term sheet to spearhead the round while existing backers including Blume Venture are also joining in.”
Previously, Stage secured INR 40 crore which comes to about USD 4.8 million in a round led by Blume Ventures back in January 2023. The platform had also raised USD 2.5 million in a pre-Series. Furthermore, Stage also raised USD 1.5 million from Venture Catalysts back in November 2020. Additionally, Stage has also raised an undisclosed sum from Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. With this, the firm was valued at INR 290 crore that comes to about USD 35 million in its last funding round.
Another credible source highlighted, “Stage might be valued at approximately $80 million to $100 million (post-money). The deal is almost final and if nothing goes wrong at the last moment, the deal will be announced soon.”
Stage was established back in November 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal. Today, it serves as a hyper-localized OTT platform which is known to offer trending, entertaining, and informative material across varied languages and dialects which include Haryanvi and Rajasthani.
Adding to this, the firm also claims to have over 1.2 million paying subscribers from Haryana alone and is gaining traction with 250,000 new subscribers joining in every month. If we speak of its peers, Stage has competitors such as aha video, Chaupal, Planet Marathi, and OM TV.
Back in July 2024, Planet Marathi had raised USD 5 million, wherein, the funding round was led by USA-based private equity firm A & MA Capital. Also to note, Chaupal and aha video are also expected to raise new rounds. According to the latest Ficci-EY media report, vernacular content is expected to comprise 55% of total production as regional OTT platforms expand, driven by dubbing and subtitling.
