Pratilipi Raises $20 Million in Funding to Launch Vertical Drama and Scale Up in the US Market
Bengaluru based self-publishing platform Pratilipi has raised $20 million (about $2.1 million) in its Series E round of funding, which saw both primary and secondary investments, from Singapore's Jungle Ventures.
The funding round also attracted the interest of prominent investors, such as Ravish Naresh, co-founder of fintech firm Khatabook, Arnav Kumar, co-founder of edtech platform Leap, and a group of angel investors.
As per the startup, $12 million was raised through equity investment at a valuation of $100 million, while $8 million was raised through secondary funding.
Pratilipi plans to utilize the new capital to venture into new storytelling forms, including animation and vertical drama series. Most of the money will also go towards increasing its US market presence.
Ranjeet Pratap Singh, co-founder and CEO at Pratilipi, said, "Most of the money is for two things , we have begun going into the US market and second is that… we are going into newer formats… largely in animation and vertical TV drama."
Pratilipi has five business units now: literature, online comics, FM, Westland Books (that it bought), and podcasts.
As far as US expansion goes, Singh stated that Pratilipi will approach both the Indian diaspora and the local population in North America. Within this competitive arena, Pratilipi will be competing against Wattpad, a platform that has 89 million readers. Singh said that although Wattpad tends to focus mostly on teenagers and young readers, Pratilipi will make content for an expanded audience with an emphasis on mature themes.
Pratilipi's IPO Plans
As part of the ongoing trend of startup public listings, Pratilipi is planning an initial public offering (IPO) "early" next year. Singh announced that the startup has already spoken with bankers and could likely kick off the IPO process soon.
"We sat with a couple of bankers some four or five months ago in order to find out what the public market wants and when we should actually approach them… We will approach the bankers in August to actually do the IPO," he said.
The startup expects FY25 to end with a revenue of around $10.2 million. During FY24, Pratilipi effectively lessened its net loss by 62% and reduced it to $7 million from $18.4 million in the preceding year. Operating revenue grew more than 65% to $6.9 million from $4.2 million in FY23.
Pratilipi's Content Ecosystem
Pratilipi, which was established in 2015 by Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, Rahul Ranjan, and Sahradayi Modi, links readers and writers across 12 languages, such as Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Hindi, and Marathi.
So far, the company has raised a total of $92 million cumulatively since its inception, including the recent fundraising, and can call on illustrious investors like Alteria Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and TLabs. Earlier this year, it also raised $1.2 million from a bridge fund from Alteria Capital.
Pratilipi boasts having over 1.6 million writers and over 12 million monthly active readers. Spreading its wings beyond conventional books, the company acquired podcast studio IVM Podcasts in 2020 and launched its audio storytelling platform, PratilipiFM, in 2021, along with Pratilipi Comics.
With a focus on content intellectual property, the startup purchased Write Order Publications in 2021 and Westland Books in 2022. In 2023, it started licensing its stories to partners for formats that it couldn't create in house, like TV shows, OTT shows, and movies. Pratilipi also partnered with Disney Star in 2023 on a multiseries content deal to facilitate the creation of several new fiction TV series based on stories found on its self-publishing platform.
The funding round also attracted the interest of prominent investors, such as Ravish Naresh, co-founder of fintech firm Khatabook, Arnav Kumar, co-founder of edtech platform Leap, and a group of angel investors.
As per the startup, $12 million was raised through equity investment at a valuation of $100 million, while $8 million was raised through secondary funding.
Pratilipi plans to utilize the new capital to venture into new storytelling forms, including animation and vertical drama series. Most of the money will also go towards increasing its US market presence.
Ranjeet Pratap Singh, co-founder and CEO at Pratilipi, said, "Most of the money is for two things , we have begun going into the US market and second is that… we are going into newer formats… largely in animation and vertical TV drama."
Pratilipi has five business units now: literature, online comics, FM, Westland Books (that it bought), and podcasts.
As far as US expansion goes, Singh stated that Pratilipi will approach both the Indian diaspora and the local population in North America. Within this competitive arena, Pratilipi will be competing against Wattpad, a platform that has 89 million readers. Singh said that although Wattpad tends to focus mostly on teenagers and young readers, Pratilipi will make content for an expanded audience with an emphasis on mature themes.
Pratilipi's IPO Plans
As part of the ongoing trend of startup public listings, Pratilipi is planning an initial public offering (IPO) "early" next year. Singh announced that the startup has already spoken with bankers and could likely kick off the IPO process soon.
"We sat with a couple of bankers some four or five months ago in order to find out what the public market wants and when we should actually approach them… We will approach the bankers in August to actually do the IPO," he said.
The startup expects FY25 to end with a revenue of around $10.2 million. During FY24, Pratilipi effectively lessened its net loss by 62% and reduced it to $7 million from $18.4 million in the preceding year. Operating revenue grew more than 65% to $6.9 million from $4.2 million in FY23.
Pratilipi's Content Ecosystem
Pratilipi, which was established in 2015 by Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, Rahul Ranjan, and Sahradayi Modi, links readers and writers across 12 languages, such as Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Hindi, and Marathi.
So far, the company has raised a total of $92 million cumulatively since its inception, including the recent fundraising, and can call on illustrious investors like Alteria Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and TLabs. Earlier this year, it also raised $1.2 million from a bridge fund from Alteria Capital.
Pratilipi boasts having over 1.6 million writers and over 12 million monthly active readers. Spreading its wings beyond conventional books, the company acquired podcast studio IVM Podcasts in 2020 and launched its audio storytelling platform, PratilipiFM, in 2021, along with Pratilipi Comics.
With a focus on content intellectual property, the startup purchased Write Order Publications in 2021 and Westland Books in 2022. In 2023, it started licensing its stories to partners for formats that it couldn't create in house, like TV shows, OTT shows, and movies. Pratilipi also partnered with Disney Star in 2023 on a multiseries content deal to facilitate the creation of several new fiction TV series based on stories found on its self-publishing platform.
