Regional over-the-top (OTT) platform Stage has raised Rs 40 crore ($4.8 million) in a funding round led by Blume Ventures.
The company also added NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, TSM Ventures, WeFounderCircle, Mumbai Angels, Tarmac Ventures, Tailwind Ventures, Longtail Ventures, Lets Ventures and AngelList as investors in this round.
Existing investors including Better Capital, IPV, TCA, Venture Catalysts along with some angels also participated in the round.
The latest round brings the total capital raised by Stage to Rs 71 crore ($8.6 million).
Founded in November 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, Parveen Singhal, Stage is a dialect-based, hyperlocal OTT platform operating on a freemium model.
It started with producing Haryana-based content in 2019, which includes Akhada, Group-D, among others. It also launched the Rajasthani dialect in June 2022, where it has garnered over 10,000 subscribers.
“The capital raised will be used to go deeper in Haryana and Rajasthan, create more original content and grow the product,” said Vinay Singhal, co-founder, Stage.
“We plan to capture 10% of 25 million+ households consuming content in Haryana and Rajasthan by mid-2024. By 2027, we plan to launch in the top 20 dialects of the country, which have a potential to reach 200 million+ households,” he added.
Stage has more than 225,000 subscribers and claims to be growing 30% month-on-month. The company counts marquee names including Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Koo founder Aprameya Radhakrishan, Nodwin Gaming founder Akshat Rathee, Unacademy co-founder Roman Saini among others as its investors.
“Building quality content is the best bet to conserve our dialects and languages and this is Stage's mission,” said Karthik Reddy, Blume Ventures. “With two dialects launched and dozens more to build, we are excited to be partners on this journey.”
Blume Ventures marked the final close of its fourth fund at over $250 million (around Rs 2,000 crore) last month. The venture capital firm would be backing around 30-35 startups through its fourth fund.
