NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital Lead $80 Million Series C in EloElo

NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital have co-led an $80 million Series C round in EloElo Group, the Bengaluru-based parent of Indian microdrama platform Story TV. The raise brings the company's total funding to $130 million.

MIT Investment Co. joined the round, alongside existing backers Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners. Avendus Capital acted as sole financial advisor on the deal. Saurabh Pandey, a former Flipkart executive, founded EloElo in 2020 and remains CEO.

Why does a U.S. media giant care about Indian microdramas?

NBCUniversal framed the investment as a bet on mobile-first viewing. Deepak Arya, executive VP of corporate strategy and development at NBCUniversal, said: "At NBCUniversal, we see significant opportunity in mobile-first storytelling and emerging formats like microdramas to engage audiences and meet evolving viewing habits."

Arya added that the company would bring "NBCUniversal's global capabilities to the partnership as EloElo expands beyond India, including into the U.S. market." That line carries the strategic weight of the deal: a Hollywood studio attaching itself to a distribution format it does not own. What it does not say is how much revenue NBCUniversal expects, or whether Story TV content will appear on any NBCU platform.

What the numbers show

Story TV's operating figures, supplied by the company, are the strongest part of the pitch:

• More than 5,000 microdramas in six languages
• A new title added every three hours
• Average user time of 95 minutes per day
• More than 40 million monthly active users across the group's apps
• More than 300 million cumulative installs

EloElo said its revenue multiplied over the past year, without disclosing figures. The claim of "solid unit economics" also comes from the founder. Pandey said: "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."

Pandey also made the wider case for the format: "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."

The wider portfolio and where the money goes

Story TV is not EloElo's only product. The group runs micro learning app Master, AI companion agent Voxy AI, and Dolphin AI, an agentic AI creative suite introduced at the FICCI Frames conference. The new capital will fund original programming in local languages, an overseas launch for the microdramas, and further development of Dolphin AI.

Hornbill Capital, founded in 2014 by Manoj Thakur, has previously backed PhysicsWallah, KreditBee, Dhan and Nazara Technologies. Thakur, the firm's founder and managing partner, said: "EloElo Group combines strong creative capabilities with the ability to scale content through technology, which is something we deeply believe in."

How big is the market?

Third-party estimates support the scale of the opportunity, with some spread between them. Research firm Omdia projects the global microdrama business will generate $14 billion before the end of 2026. Redseer estimates that 40 million Indians made at least one microdrama purchase during fiscal 2026. Lumikai forecasts the Indian market alone will reach $4.5 billion by 2030.

The U.S. launch will test whether the format travels beyond its home market — and whether NBCUniversal's global capabilities convert into audiences.