STAGE OTT: ₹ 1.5 Crores for 0.6% Equity Win on Shark Tank India

The STAGE OTT is located in Indore and is an online entertainment portal that provides content in regional languages. It brings together speakers of different dialects from the country and offers them entertainment content in their native language.

Click here to visit their official website: STAGE OTT

It is the world’s first OTT platform to focus on local language content. Each unique culture linked to Indian dialects contributes to the country’s identity. Even though India has over 19,500 dialects, only 21 are currently spoken by the majority of the population.

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Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal introduced the “Stage Ott” platform in 2019, focusing on unique content specific to local areas. Before this, Vinay Singhal co-founded WittyFeed, the most popular website in India, back in 2014. According to YourStory, WittyFeed amassed 2.5 billion ad views and 420 million page visits in just two years.

Sadly, WittyFeed’s Facebook page was taken down in 2018, but the founder persisted with the project. In 2019, Vinay, with his co-founders Praveen Singhal and Shashank Vaishnav, rebranded WittyFeed to Stage OTT. Despite facing 500 rejected requests for startup investments, Stage Ott eventually secured its first investment of 3.5 crore rupees from Inflection Point Ventures in March 2021.

They’ve given jobs to over 1000 local artists, creating more than 300 hours of Haryanvi and Rajasthani content. At the time of presenting on Shark Tank, they had over 1.30 lakh paying subscribers, charging ₹400 per year. They aim to add 20 more languages in the next 5 years. All their content is original, costing about ₹20 lakh for one web series or movie. Their conversion rate from login to subscription signup is 10%, with a 94% retention in the fourth week and an average monthly usage time of 4.5 hours.

The company received an initial investment of ₹10 crore in 2020 at a valuation of ₹65 crores. Their second round raised 20 crores at a ₹100 crore valuation in 2021, and another round raised ₹36 crore in 2022 at a pre-money valuation of ₹250 crores. They currently earn ₹25 lakh monthly, closing last year with ₹3.85 crores in revenue. Their customer acquisition cost is ₹270, and they burn through ₹1.1 crores monthly.

Vineeta decided not to invest because she felt the company was asking for too much money. Anupam also chose not to invest because he was unsure how his investment would be beneficial and believed the funds should support entrepreneurs in greater need. Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, and Peyush Bansal made an offer of ₹1.5 crores for a 0.6% stake in the company, along with an additional ₹1.5 crores as a loan with an 18% interest rate. The company agreed to their proposal.

Our investigation into the company revealed that the agreement with the investors was successful, and the business is doing well. By January 2023, Business Insider disclosed that Stage OTT secured an extra ₹40 crores in funding, led by Blume Ventures, solidifying its position in the entertainment sector.

In May 2024, the company remains operational, boasting over 5 million downloads for their app on the Google Play Store with a high 4.4/5 rating given by more than 40 thousand users. They are also accessible on iOS and are ranked at #64 in the entertainment category. Unfortunately, their financial details are currently undisclosed.