With the help of current investors, the regional language-focused over-the-top (OTT) platform Stage is expected to raise $15 million under the leadership of a new investor.

Sources aware of this subject says, “Goodwater Capital has offered a term sheet to spearhead the round while existing backers including Blume Venture are also joining in”.

In January 2023, Blume Ventures led a round in which Stage raised Rs 40 crore ($4.8 million). The platform had previously secured $1.5 million from Venture Catalysts in November 2020 and $2.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round in January 2022.

Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra also donated an undisclosed amount to Stage last year. TheKredible claims that the company's most recent funding round valued it at Rs 290 crore, or about $35 million.

Blume Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Stage did not respond to inquiries. If they do, we will update the post.

Stage is a hyper-localized over-the-top (OTT) platform that was launched in November 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal. It provides trendy, entertaining, and educational content in a number of languages and dialects, including Rajasthani and Haryanvi.

According to the company, it has over 1.2 million paying customers in Haryana alone, and it adds 250,000 new customers every month.

Its rivals in the regional OTT market include OM TV, Planet Marathi, Chaupal, and Aha Video. The US-based private equity firm A & MA Capital spearheaded Planet Marathi's $5 million fundraising campaign in July. According to reports, Chaupal and Aha Video are negotiating a fresh round.

The most recent Ficci-EY media analysis predicts that as regional OTT platforms grow due to dubbing and subtitling, vernacular content will account for 55% of overall production.