India media platform Pratilipi raises $48m Series D
Pratilipi, a literature, comics, and audio storytelling platform with service in 12 Indian languages, has raised a $48 million Series D that will see the start-up branch into gaming.
Korean gaming studio Krafton led the round, contributing $45 million according to a statement. The idea is to translate some of Pratilipi’s intellectual properties (IP) into gaming formats for international audiences.
Existing investor Omidyar Network India also participated, as did a host of start-up founders, including Hemesh Singh and Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), Vidit Aatrey (Meesho), Amit Agarwal (NoBroker), and Pratilipi CEO Ranjeet Pratap Singh.
It brings Pratilipi’s total funding to date to $78.8 million, including a $9.3 million Series C last year featuring Omidyar, Shunwei Capital, Nexus India Capital Advisors, Tencent Holdings, and The Times Group. Qiming Venture Partners led a $15 million Series B the prior year, marking the Chinese VC’s first India investment.
Krafton is pushing aggressively into India, having launched its flagship “Battlegrounds” franchise in the country last month. This coincided with participation in a $9 million seed round for e-sports streaming company Loco that also featured India’s 3one4 Capital and Axilor Ventures, as well as Korea’s Hashed Ventures.
“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 in a separate statement.
“Krafton believes in long term potential of local Indian IPs that can be successful not just in India but globally as well across formats including literature, comics and gaming and our investment in Pratilipi is another step in realizing that vision.”
The strategy echoes themes underpinning NewQuest Capital’s acquisition of Indian animation studio Cosmos-Maya last month from KKR-backed Emerald Media. Much of the plan hinges on the overseas marketability of the company’s Indian cartoon IP.
Pratilipi, which focuses on user-generated content, has 30 million monthly active readers and 370,000 writers. In the past 18 months, it has moved into new formats such as traditional books, web series, podcasts, and animation. This activity includes the launch of two new products, Pratilipi FM and Pratilipi Comics, and the acquisition of two companies, IVM Podcast and The Write Order.
Avendus Capital served as financial advisor to Pratilipi for the Series D.
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