EloElo Group, the Bengaluru company behind the Story TV micro drama app, has raised $80 million in a Series C round led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, according to Entrackr. The round, announced on Wednesday, Nov. 4, lifts the startup's total funding to $130 million.

The deal puts a U.S. media group directly behind one of India's fastest-growing entertainment formats: short, serialized dramas built for phone screens. For investors in Asia, it also arrived in the same week that jewellery brand GIVA closed a round of more than $100 million. Both deals point to growth investors writing larger checks for Indian consumer brands with revenue to show.

What EloElo Is Buying With NBCUniversal's Money

MIT Investment Co. joined the round, along with existing backers Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Waterbridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners, Entrackr reported. The company did not disclose a valuation. Inc42 put the rupee value of the round at nearly 756 crore rupees.

EloElo plans to spend the money in three places. The first is premium original content in several languages. The second is an international launch of Story TV, including in the United States. The third is Dolphin AI, an agentic AI suite the company uses for creative work.

The startup was founded in 2020 by Saurabh Pandey, a former Flipkart executive. It now runs a portfolio of apps: Story TV for micro dramas, Master for short-form learning, Dolphin AI, and Voxy AI, an AI companion. EloElo says its apps have more than 40 million monthly active users and over 300 million installs.

Story TV carries more than 5,000 dramas in six languages and releases a new one every three hours, according to the company. It says users spend 95 minutes a day on the app on average.

Revenue Small but Rising

EloElo only began charging users in May 2024. Its FY25 revenue was 69.5 crore rupees, and losses were broadly flat, Entrackr reported. FY26 accounts have not yet been filed, though the company says revenue grew several times over in the past year and that its unit economics are profitable.

The round is a sharp step up from its previous raise. EloElo's Series B in April 2025 brought in $13.5 million, so the new money is roughly six times larger.

The bet rests on the size of the category. Omdia expects the global micro drama industry to generate $14 billion by the end of 2026, Entrackr reported. In India, Redseer estimates 40 million people paid for a micro drama at least once in FY26, and Lumikai projects the Indian market will reach $4.5 billion by 2030.

Competition is crowded. Story TV goes up against Kuku TV, ShareChat's Quick TV, Pocket FM's Pocket Saga and a new entrant from Flipkart. On the learning side, Master competes with Seekho, which raised a $28 million Series B backed by Bessemer and Lightspeed in September last year.

GIVA Lands a $100 Million-Plus Round

The EloElo deal followed a larger raise by GIVA, the Bengaluru fine jewellery brand. GIVA raised more than $100 million in a round led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management and co-investors, Entrackr reported on Tuesday, Nov. 3, citing a company press release. No valuation was disclosed.

GIVA, founded in 2019 by Ishendra Agarwal, sells sterling silver, gold and lab-grown diamond jewellery through its own stores, its website and online marketplaces. It has more than 400 stores in India and Sri Lanka and aims for over 1,000 within three to five years. The company reported FY26 revenue of about 865 crore rupees, according to Entrackr. In FY25, operating revenue rose 89% to 518 crore rupees while losses widened 22% to 72 crore rupees.

GIVA has now raised more than $258 million in total, including a 110 crore rupee Series C extension led by HPV CC1 in February. A $28 million debt raise in May may form part of the new round, Entrackr reported.

The two deals come after a quarter in which Asian startup funding leaned heavily on AI and China. Consumer brands in India with audited revenue are still drawing large rounds outside that trend.

The next figures to watch are EloElo's FY26 accounts, which will show whether the revenue growth the company describes holds up in its filings, and the timing of Story TV's U.S. launch.