Produced by: Aakanksha Ram Chaturvedi Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Olympic Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra has donned the hat of an investor. He has made an investment in regional streaming and OTT platform Stage.
Stage, which featured on Shark Tank India’s season two, was launched in 2019. The platform has over six million installs and has a community of over 5.5 lakh paying subscribers, as per their website.
Chopra highlighted how through his investment he wants to make a statement about preservation of our regional identity. He said, "Cultural preservation and pride in where we come from are woven into the fabric of our identity." The investment amount was not disclosed.
The Stage app caters to local dialects and languages. Moreover, the platform has a diverse array of content, from movies to poetry to motivational content.
This is the first time the Olympic gold medalist has invested in an Indian startup. He noted, “With my investment in Stage represents we will embark on a journey together to reawaken dormant languages and empower every voice.”
As an ode to the startup’s mission to serve customers with regional content, the Chopra’s involvement with Stage was announced at his ancestral village Khandra, Panipat.
This is not the first time a celebrity has invested in the regional OTT platform. After their presentation at Shark Tank India, investors Peyush Bansal, Namita Thapar and Aman Gupta invested in the company.
In January this year, the OTT platform raised Rs 40 crore in funding in a round led by Blume Ventures, with participation by NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, TSM Ventures, WeFounderCircle, Mumbai Angels, and Tarmac Ventures, among others. Other existing investors in the startup are Better Capital, IPV, TCA, and Venture Catalysts.