NBCUniversal Invests in India Microdrama Producer in $80 Million Fundraising Round

NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital have led an $80 million Series C fundraising round for Indian microdrama producer EloElo Group, founded by former Flipkart executive Saurabh Pandey.

The new capital will allow the Story TV platform operator to produce new vertical dramas for export internationally, including to the U.S. market. The Series C investment, usually done to allow startups to scale operations, follows NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform launching the unscripted vertical series, Campus Confidential: Miami, as part of a wider push into mobile content to reach new audiences.

“At NBCUniversal, we see significant opportunity in mobile-first storytelling and emerging formats like micro dramas to engage audiences and meet evolving viewing habits. Under Saurabh’s leadership, EloElo has developed a differentiated, mobile-first approach with a clear focus on content and storytelling, positioning the company for long-term success. We’re excited to bring NBCUniversal’s global capabilities to the partnership as EloElo expands beyond India, including into the U.S. market,” Deepak Arya, executive vp of corporate strategy & development at NBCUniversal, said in a statement.

EloElo Group, which launched in Bengaluru, India in 2020, points to an expanding slate of over 5000 micro dramas in six languages, while a Dolphin AI agentic production engine. Across its apps, EloElo Group added it has over 40 million monthly active users.

“This Series C deepens our content across languages, with a sharper focus on premium originals, doubles down on Dolphin AI, and takes what we have built to more audiences and more markets,” Pandey, founder and CEO of EloElo Group, said in his own statement.

Microdramas, which are typically produced in 60-90 second episodes and strategically written with a hook, a spike and a cliff hanger to get viewers onto the next episode, have caught on in North America and elsewhere internationally after coming out of China during the pandemic era.