Pratilipi, an online storytelling platform, announced that it had raised $48 million (approximately Rs 358 crore) in a round led by South Korean gaming conglomerate Krafton Inc.

Existing investor Omidyar Network India joined the series D round, as did Hemesh Singh and Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy, Nishith Rastogi of Locus, Sahil Barua of Delhivery, Vidit Aatrey of Meesho, Mekin Maheshwari of Udhyam, and Amit Agarwal of Unacademy (NoBroker).

Pratilipi is a platform that connects readers, writers, and their stories. Millions of people are using Pratilipi to discover, express, and share their stories in the language they love, from your next-door neighbour reading stories in the afternoon to the funny college kid downstairs.

Pratilipi Co-founder and CEO Ranjeet Pratap Singh also participated in this round, bringing the total amount raised to $78.8 million. The startup's valuation has now risen to approximately $265 million.

Singh told PTI that the new funding will help Pratilipi strengthen its intellectual property (IP) acquisition and development across multiple formats such as audio books, podcasts, comics, web series, movies, and games.
He added that a portion of the investment will be used to expand in several overseas markets, including Bangladesh and the UAE, later this year.

Next year, the company plans to enter the North American market.

Bengaluru-based Prashant Gupta, Sahradayi Modi, Rahul Ranjan, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, and Ranjeet Pratap Singh co-founded Pratilipi in 2015. It began as an online reading-writing platform in Indian languages and has since grown to include over 3.7 lakh writers and 30 million monthly active readers in 12 Indian languages.

Pratilipi has launched two new products in the last 18 months, Pratilipi FM and Pratilipi Comics, as well as acquired two companies, IVM Podcast and The Write Order.

Singh also stated that Pratilipi and Krafton will begin looking for the best Pratilipi stories that can be translated into globally successful gaming franchises.

"At Pratilipi, our vision has always been to democratise storytelling across languages, geographies, and formats. Over the last 12-18 months, we have seen a lot of progress, expanding into some new formats as well as finding newer ways for our creators to be successful," he added.

The startup also intends to generate $1.6 million in revenue by December of this year. It also stated that it intends to more than double its current headcount of 140 employees by December of next year.

"It is exciting to see the growth of Indian local IPs in online literature, comics, and audio platform on Pratilipi, which is already the largest player in India in multiple categories. With Pratilipi already having a multilingual platform for online literature, it is poised to become one of the strongest players in emerging markets in the future," Sean Hyunil Sohn, Head of Krafton's India Division, said.

He went on to say that Krafton believes in the long-term potential of local Indian IPs that can be successful not only in India but also globally across multiple formats such as literature, comics, and gaming, and that the investment in Pratilipi is another step toward realising that vision.
Pratilipi's exclusive financial advisor on this transaction was Avendus Capital.