PUBG developer Krafton is going to help Indian storytelling platform Pratilipi to turn a few stories into games

• Pratilipi has raised $48 million in a Series D funding round led by PUBG developer Krafton.
  
• The duo will be working together to find stories that can be translated into gaming franchises.
  
• The platform claims to have about 5 million stories which have been read over 5 billion times.

Bengaluru-based storytelling platform Pratilipi has raised $48 million in a Series D funding round led by PUBG developer Krafton, as the startup looks to expand into overseas markets. The duo will be working together to find Pratilipi stories that can be translated into globally successful gaming franchises.

The latest funding would allow Pratilipi to strengthen its intellectual property (IP) acquisition and development across different formats ranging from audio books to games. The company’s existing investors Omidyar and Network India also participated in the round, along with a host of entrepreneurs such as Unacademy’s founders Gaurav Munjal and Hemesh Singh, Locus’s Nishith Rastogi, Delhivery’s Sahil Barua and Meesho’s Vidit Aatrey.

“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. 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 realising that vision,” Sean Hyunil Sohn, head of Krafton’s India division.

Last year, Krafton had announced its plans to invest $100 million in Indian startups to cultivate the local video game, esports, entertainment, and IT industries. Since then, it has invested $9 million in Loco, $22.5 million in Nodwin and now led a $48 million round in Pratilipi.

Udyam’s Mekin Maheshwari, NoBroker’s Amit Agarwal and Pratilipi’s chief executive Ranjeet Pratap Singh also invested an undisclosed amount in the company in their personal capacity.

Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Pratilipi on this transaction.

Pratilipi was founded by Prashant Gupta, Sahradayi Modi, Rahul Ranjan, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan and Singh in 2015.

It had started off as an online reading-writing platform and has launched two new products over the years — Pratilipi FM for audio based storytelling and Pratilipi Comics for in-house comic series. It has also acquired two startups -- IVM Podcast and The Writer Order to expand its presence.

The Bengaluru-based startup has over 370,000 writers on the platform and 30 million monthly active readers in 12 Indian languages. The platform claims to have about 5 million stories which have been read over 5 billion times.

Pratilipi has raised $78.8 million to date, with ₹76 crore ($10 million) coming in from the Series C round raised in April 2020. The company’s list of investors also includes Tencent, Shunwei Capital, Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd, Nexus Venture Partners and others.

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