HITTING GROUND ZERO TO FLYING AGAIN
An interesting tale of how entrepreneurs of the second largest content creating company WITTYFEED
lost all of their company in a single day on 26th nov , 2018 .
This is how one year later on 1st NOV, 2019 , the owner VINAY SINGHAL and two of his co-founders started a new OTT platform called STAGE . Stage delivers online content such as web series and movies in local dialect. Mainly at present they specialise in providing content in HARYANVI AND RAJASTHANI LANGUAGES .But they also plan to expand into 20 local lingos over the span of next 5 years. In simpler words, to decode Stage is BOLIYON KA NETFLIX .
They have seriously taken the Make in India concept and they give local people , artists , directors , songwriters, basically everything produced locally , which not only enhances confidence of people speaking these local languages but also it revives the whole industry , creating local employment and helping a lot of people in ways which cannot be documented. Practically YE COMPANY NAHI , KRANTI H , is a slogan used by owners.
India has around 19,000 vernacular and the whole sum of approximately 100 crore people in our country speak in their mother tongue which somehow are looked upon lowly . Stage will eliminate that possibility and add up the more authentic Indian Culture into masses minds. People will feel more comfortable in their skin and also through showing the interior parts of our culturally diversified country , trade ,disinvestment , local art , music and dance will gain momentum which benefits the tourism of the state plus standard of living of people will also get enhanced . Today foreigners who see India through these platforms will be invested in our diversified customs and simpler way of life such as making a simple meal in an open area or making authentic DAL BATI in cow dung cakes . Traditions are so rich that it will attract the world also because we are known for our kind hospitable nature . INDIANS are wired that way.
They have given jobs to 1000+ local Haryanvi and Rajasthani people who created 300+ hrs of original content which contributed to 1.3 lakh subscribers which cost 400 rupees to subscriber or as they say recharges every year with a total repetitive of 94% every month . They also have 106 k subscribers at present on their youtube which a channel name called HARYANVI -STAGE and on RAJASTHANI - STAGE with 15.7k and everyday the number is increasing . The average user watch time is 4.5 hrs a month . Users can download this AAP from android play store , Apple store. , and blackberry phones.
The company raised its seed funding through their old company employees making them angel investors . Then they raised their first round of 10 crore in 2020 , second round of pre-money of 20 crore, third in 2022 of 36 crores and they have also featured in SHARK TANK - A very famous show which invests in startup business . They raised 3 crore ( bifurcated as 1.5 crore in debt and 1.5 crore in equity )
Stage OTT has grabbed the news attention when they raised 40 crore rupees from BLUME VENTURES . This is by far the largest round funding they have got in one go . Altogether the Stage company has investors investing 71 crores at a valuation of 500+ crores .The Company is well expanding and nurturing giving its investors their shares .
India is right now one of the largest markets of OTT platforms and the lead players are Netflix , Amazon Prime , Hotstar etc , having more than 423 MN OTT users ( cited by ORMAX OTT AUDIENCE SIZING REPORT , 2022) . Here Stage comes onto play the most interesting content based on multiple dialects is a cherry on cake for users , as the shark Aman Gupta on shark tank said - BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS , THE BOLLYWOOD IS DIMINISHING . It is a well said verse proving to be true in every sense as LOCAL IS VOCAL trend going upwards very fast .
In a nutshell , the idea of this platform in itself is a wholesome process which support people from their own locality and making something big that will have impact on for future generations to come and is also changing how Indians look Indians , the divide to say on caste , religion , financial disparity and mentality is changing for good which once again is in our favour . The story of having it all and losing it in a minute and then standing up all again with nothing in hand to build a massive company is remarkable and an inspiration to all the entrepreneur's .
The factual data is taken from and the links are mentioned below -
Economic Times -https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/stage-ott-funding
Shark Tank - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlzQBavpUNU
THIS IS AN INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR STORY .