SCOOP Confirmed: Neeraj Chopra-backed Stage raises $12.5 million in funding

Neeraj Chopra-backed Stage, commonly touted as the Netflix for Bharat, has raised $12.5 million in a Series B funding round led by GoodwaterCap and BlumeVentures. The funding round also included $2.5 million worth of secondaries for some angel investors, including Harsh Shah (co-founder of Fynd), and Aayush Phumbra (founder of Chegg). 

Physis Capital, Mumbai Angels, The Chennai Angels, Venture Catalysts, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) and other existing investors also participated.

ISN was the first to report on Stage's discussions regarding its Series B funding round in October last year.

What does Stage do?

Founded by Parveen Singhal, Vinay Singhal, Harsh Mani Tripathi, and Shashank Vaishnav, Stage is a hyperlocal video entertainment platform, an OTT or over-the-top media service like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and several others.

It is a dialect-based platform that has created a niche for itself by tapping viewers largely in the Haryana and Rajasthan belt and others who prefer watching content in Haryanvi and Rajasthani.

The startup claims to have 20 million users and over 4.4 million paying subscribers. Presently, its ARR is at Rs 180 crore.

In FY23, Stage had seen its revenue fall to Rs 2.94 crore from Rs 3.87 crore recorded in FY22, as per data available on Tracxn.