Microdrama funding data: rounds and deals
Disclosed rounds, credit facilities and acquisitions in vertical drama and in adjacent AI-video tooling. Non-equity user-acquisition financing is identified as such and implies no valuation. Adjacent rows are labelled.
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| Date | Company | Round / event | Amount | Investors / lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan 2026 | Holywater / My Drama (UA) | Series A | $22m | Horizon Capital (lead, about $16m); Endeavor Catalyst; Wheelhouse |
| Note Valuation not confirmed | ||||
| Jun 2026 | Idilio (CO) — AI ES/PT | Seed | $5.5m | WndrCo (Katzenberg), a16z Speedrun, Goodwater, David Vélez |
| Note Claims first place in Latin America. iQSTEL's SEC filing of 8 September 2026 states the seed at $5m. | ||||
| Oct 2025 | GammaTime (US) | Seed | $14m | vgames + Pitango (co-leads); Ohanian, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian |
| Note — | ||||
| 2 Jun 2026 | GammaTime (US) | Series A | undisclosed | Versant Media (Comcast/NBCU) minority |
| Note Strategic broadcaster equity, reported by Variety on 2 June 2026 and by The Hollywood Reporter. The amount is undisclosed. vgames and Pitango, co-leads of the October 2025 seed, participated. | ||||
| about Apr 2026 | Shorta (LatAm/Spain) | seeking | about $20m (sought) | Newtopia, Kalei Ventures, Guillermo Rauch |
| Note Armando Bo (Birdman) | ||||
| Oct 2025 | Kuku TV (India) | Series C | $85m | Granite Asia (lead), Krafton, Vertex, IFC; more than $550m post-money |
| Note IPO filed (about $1.7bn–1.8bn) | ||||
| Mar 2024 | Pocket FM (India) — audio-adjacent | Series D | $103m | Lightspeed (lead), Stepstone, Naver, Tencent |
| Note $750m post-money (about 5× ARR); a further round has since stalled | ||||
| Mar 2025 | STAGE (India) — hyperlocal | Series B | $12.5m | Goodwater, Blume |
| Note ARR ₹180 crore | ||||
| about 2025 | Eloelo / Story TV (India) | targeting | about $50m (target) | WaterBridge, Lumikai, Kalaari; Balaji Telefilms |
| Note Profitable since October 2025 | ||||
| Sep 2024 | Vigloo / Spoon Labs (Korea) | Strategic | about $86–89m | Krafton (lead) |
| Note Krafton's largest non-gaming bet | ||||
| Apr 2025 | BUMP / emole (Japan) | Series A | ¥850m (¥1.16bn total) | Angel Bridge (lead); Dentsu Ventures, Sega Sammy |
| Note The Series A is dated March 2025 in other accounts | ||||
| about 2025 | Gokko (Japan) | Series B | about $8.28m total | JAFCO, Nippon TV, Septeni |
| Note Japanese-owned; Chinese IP | ||||
| Feb 2024 | Inkitt (DE to SF) — CandyJar microdrama | Series C | $37m ($117m total) | Khosla (lead), NEA, Kleiner Perkins, Redalpine, Axel Springer |
| Note About $400m post-money | ||||
| Jun 2025 | Flick TV (India) | Seed | $2.3m | Stellaris (lead), Gemba, Titan |
| Note — | ||||
| Dec 2025 | Mirelo (Berlin) — AI sound for AI video | Seed | $41m | Index + a16z (co-lead); Atlantic Labs |
| Note AI-content infrastructure in DACH | ||||
| about Mar 2026 | Minit Games (DE) — short-form gaming (adjacent) | Seed | €1.7m | LVP + Sony Innovation Fund |
| Note — | ||||
| about 15 Jun 2026 | Shorts / Luni (Bordeaux, FR) | UA financing | $14m | PvX Partners |
| Note Non-dilutive user-acquisition financing, not equity | ||||
| 23 Dec 2025 | Play Media / Telenet (Belgium) | Capital increase | €45m | Telenet (parent) |
| Note Not for Play Shorts alone | ||||
| 2018 + 2020 | Quibi (US) | 2 rounds | $1.75bn | Disney, NBCU, Alibaba, Madrone; Google, P&G |
| Note Spent more than $1bn; library sold to Roku for under $100m | ||||
| 2025–26 | AI-video infrastructure companies | C–Growth | $60–500m | Valuations: Synthesia $4bn; ElevenLabs $11bn; Captions $500m |
| Note Adjacent AI-content valuations | ||||
| 12 Jun 2026 | AniShort / Eight Eight Digital (CN) — AI short-drama tool | Strategic equity (近亿元) | about RMB 100m (about $13–14m) | Beijing Taizhonghe (lead); existing holders upsized |
| Note The largest single 2026 raise in China's AI short-drama tool track | ||||
| 9 Jun 2026 | CreativeFitting / 井英科技 (CN) — agent-native AI short drama | Series A + A+ | tens of millions of dollars | Lollapalooza Capital (Wang Huiwen); Ant Group; ex-Tencent SVP Yin Yu |
| Note Claims the first closed overseas AI short-drama loop | ||||
| about late May–Jun 2026 | Reactor (US) — real-time generative-video infrastructure (adjacent) | Series A | $59m | Lightspeed (lead); WndrCo/Katzenberg; Amplify; Sky9; FPV |
| Note AI-video infrastructure rather than a microdrama platform; an AWS partner | ||||
| 29 Jun 2026 | Rusk Media (India) — Alright! TV | Strategic equity investment | Undisclosed | Yash Raj Films (YRF) |
| Note India's largest film studio enters vertical microdrama and animation IP | ||||
| 18 Jun 2026 (disclosed; closed H1’26) | Evoken / LiblibAI (演语科技) — LibTV (adjacent, AI-video tool) | Series B+ | about US$300m | Granite Asia + Shunwei Capital (leads); HT Investment, Jadestone; existing Ant Group, Sequoia China |
| Note >US$2bn post-money; ARR >$300m; the largest single round in China's AI-application track. An AI-video tool layer, not a microdrama platform. | ||||
| 1 Jul 2026 | Shortical (Israel) — AI-first microdrama app | User-acquisition financing (non-equity credit facility) | $100m | PvX Partners (Singapore; CEO Joe Wadakethalakal) |
| Note Not equity: a user-acquisition credit line, with repayments tied to cohort performance and cash generation, which scales marketing spend without dilution. It implies no valuation. Among the year's largest category capital events by size, but not by dilution. | ||||
| 23 Jun 2026 | StoReel (US) — 'Canvas' AI production layer | Seed + UA financing | $34m | Not named in source |
| Note Disclosed alongside the Canvas launch. The company claims a CPI of $4.63 against $8–10 for live action. | ||||
| 3 Feb 2026 | Zupee (IN) ← Vertical TV (IN) | M&A (acquisition) | under ₹40 crore (about $4.5m) | Zupee (acquirer) |
| Note An Inc42 exclusive, sources-based and not confirmed by the company. Zupee laid off about 200 staff on 30 January after India's ban on real-money gaming. A circulating aggregator figure of ₹150 crore including earn-outs could not be confirmed. | ||||
| 28 Jul 2025 | DramaBox (SG/CN) — Disney Accelerator 2025 cohort | Accelerator investment | Undisclosed | The Walt Disney Company (Disney Accelerator; cohort: Animaj, DramaBox, Haddy, LIMINAL Space) |
| Note Investment capital and senior-leadership mentorship. No equity stake or valuation has been disclosed. Demo Day was held in Burbank in November 2025; Disney Publishing said it was in discussions to adapt YA novels into microdramas, which is exploratory rather than signed. | ||||
| 2 Jul 2026 (HKEX filing) | Kling AI / 可灵 (Kuaishou, CN) — AI video model (adjacent, tool layer) | Strategic equity (16.67%) | about US$3.0bn (RMB 20.4471bn) | BlueFive Capital (Abu Dhabi), CPE, 国方投资 co-leads; Tencent, CITIC Securities, Baidu, Alibaba Cloud among 10+ |
| Note About US$18bn post-money, and the largest single raise by an AI video-generation company. Adjacent: a tool layer, not a microdrama app. The amount and valuation come from Kuaishou's HKEX filing. | ||||