- Founders: Parveen Singhal, Vinay Singhal & Shashank Vaishnav
- Business: Vernacular OTT Platform
- Ask: ₹ 3 Crores for 1% Equity
- Valuation: ₹300 Crore
- Result: ₹ 1.5 Crores for 0.6% Equity and ₹ 1.5 Crores debt @12% interest
- Sharks: Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta and Peyush Bansal
- Episode: Season 2 Episode 3
Stage Shark Tank India pitch:
Stage is an innovative OTT platform founded in 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal and they pitched in Shark Tank India Season 2. It distinguishes itself by offering entertainment content in various local dialects, fostering connectivity among people across the country. There are more than 19,000 dialects in India. Notably, it’s the world’s first platform dedicated to local dialect content.
Stage stats:
They have provided employment to over 1000 local artists, which in turn has produced content of over 300 hours in Haryanvi and Rajasthani. They had over 1.30 lakh paid subscribers at the time of pitching on Shark Tank, and they charge a subscription fee of ₹400 annually. They are planning to launch an additional 20 languages in the next 5 years. All content is 100% original. One web series or movie costs about ₹20 lakh. They have a 10% conversion rate from login to sign up for a subscription. Week 4 retention is at 94%. The monthly average usage time is 4.5 hours.
The company received its initial investment of ₹10 crore in 2020 at a valuation of ₹65 crores. The second round raised 20 crores at a ₹100 crore valuation in 2021, and they raised another round of ₹36 crore in 2022 at a pre-money valuation of ₹250 crores. Their monthly revenue is ₹25 lakh, and they closed last year with ₹3.85 crores in revenue. Their customer acquisition cost is ₹270, and the monthly burn rate is ₹1.1 crores.
Stage Shark Tank Negotiations:
Vineeta opted out because she thinks the valuation is very high. Anupam follows her lead as he doesn’t understand how his money is going to help and believes the money can go to entrepreneurs who actually need it. Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, and Peyush Bansal made an offer of ₹1.5 crores for 0.6% equity along with ₹1.5 crores in debt at an 18% interest rate. The company accepted their offer.
How is Stage doing after Shark Tank India?
Our research on the company revealed that the deal with the sharks closed, and the company is thriving. In January 2023, Business Insider reported that Stage OTT raised an additional ₹40 crores in funding, led by Blume Ventures, further cementing its position in the entertainment industry.
As of October 2023, the company is still in business, and they have 5 million+ downloads for their app on the Google Play Store with a strong 4.4/5 rating, which has been rated by over 40 thousand people. They are also available on iOS and are in the #64 position in the entertainment category. Their financials are not known at this point.
Image source: Stage Haryanvi Instagram
Here are updates on other companies from Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 3!
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