Exclusive: Regional OTT app Stage set to raise $15 Mn in new round

Regional language focused over-the-top (OTT) platform Stage is set to raise $15 million led by a new investor, along with participation of existing investors, two sources familiar with the details told Entrackr.

“Goodwater Capital has offered a term sheet to spearhead the round while existing backers including Blume Venture are also joining in,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity as talks are private.

In January 2023, Stage secured Rs 40 crore ($4.8 million) in a round led by Blume Ventures. Prior to that, the platform raised $2.5 million in a pre-Series A round in January 2022, and $1.5 million from Venture Catalysts in November 2020.

Last year, Stage also raised an undisclosed sum from Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. According to TheKredible, the firm was valued at Rs 290 crore (around $35 million) in its last funding round.

“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,” said another source.

Queries sent to Stage, Goodwater Capital, and Blume Ventures did not receive a response. We’ll update the post if they do.

Launched in November 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal, Stage serves as a hyper-localized  OTT platform, offering trending, entertaining, and informative material in various languages and dialects including Haryanvi and Rajasthani.

The firm claims to have over 1.2 million paying subscribers from Haryana alone and is gaining 250,000 new subscribers each month.

In the regional OTT players, it has competitors like aha video, Chaupal, Planet Marathi, and OM TV. In July, Planet Marathi raised $5 million led by USA-based private equity firm A & MA Capital. Chaupal and aha video are reportedly in talks to raise new round.

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.