Kuku’s IPO could put microdramas on India’s public-market map

India’s startup IPO story has largely been dominated by ecommerce, fintech, SaaS and food delivery. Kuku’s planned listing could add an unlikely new category to that list: short-form entertainment.

The Bengaluru-based parent of Kuku FM and Kuku TV has reportedly filed draft papers through the confidential route to raise Rs 3,500 crore, seeking a valuation of up to Rs 15,000 crore. 

The IPO is expected to include a mix of fresh issue and offer-for-sale. Proceeds from the primary raise are likely to be used to strengthen technology and AI infrastructure, fund content production and support geographic expansion. Kotak Mahindra Capital, Jefferies, JM Financial and Axis Capital are acting as lead managers to the issue, as per media reports. 

If the listing goes through within this financial year, Kuku could become India’s first microdrama-led startup to enter the public markets. More importantly, it will test whether investors are ready to back a content business built around mobile-first storytelling, regional audiences, paid subscriptions and AI-led production systems.

e4m reached out to Kuku for comments. The copy will be updated when they respond.

From vernacular audio to Kuku TV & Guru 

Founded in 2018 by IIT alumni Lal Chand Bisu, Vinod Kumar and Vikas Goyal, Kuku began as a vernacular audio platform through Kuku FM. It has since expanded into short-video storytelling through Kuku TV and edutainment through Guru.

The company raised over $150 million from investors including Fundamentum Partnership, Krafton, Vertex Ventures, Granite Asia, IFC, Paramark Ventures, India Quotient and 3one4 Capital. Former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni is also among its backers.

Kuku TV, launched in late 2024, has emerged as the company’s key growth engine. The platform releases more than 150 original microdrama shows every month and has crossed 200 million downloads. Across its platforms, Kuku claims over 10 million active paying subscribers, 400 million app downloads and a content library of more than 60,000 hours across Indian languages.

Its revenue grew nearly seven-fold from Rs 240 crore in FY25 to more than Rs 1,400 crore in FY26. The company is also said to be nearing breakeven — a critical signal for public-market investors who have become more selective about loss-making consumer internet listings.

“Kuku’s proposed IPO is significant not because it validates micro-dramas as a content format, but because it tests whether public markets are willing to recognise attention-led, mobile-first storytelling as a scalable entertainment as an asset class compared to the traditional film, television and OTT businesses,” says Pep Figueiredo, COO of PTPL India and ex-SonyLiv.  

Figueiredo adds, “More importantly, it signals a potential shift in investor thinking from valuing content libraries based on engagement frequency, content velocity and the ability to convert fragmented consumer attention into recurring monetisation rather than production scale and star power.”

IPO Pitch May Hinge On AI-Led Content Scale

Kuku’s use of artificial intelligence could become central to its investor pitch.

 “AI has helped the company accelerate content production, improve recommendations and lower customer acquisition costs. That matters because microdrama platforms need both speed and stickiness. Content has to be produced quickly, but users must also return often enough to justify acquisition spends,” said a former Kuku TV executive. 

The company has also started exploring international markets, including the United States, signalling that it may eventually position Indian microdramas as exportable digital IP.

Still, the IPO will bring sharper scrutiny. Public-market investors will look beyond downloads and revenue growth. The key questions will be retention, paid conversion, content costs, churn, IP ownership, AI efficiency and whether the platform can keep producing hits without inflating spending.

“Investors may be better served valuing Kuku as an emerging intellectual property asset creator whose long-term value will ultimately be determined by its ability to originate, own, scale and repeatedly monetise characters, story worlds and franchises across multiple formats and distribution channels. Like how Walt Disney scaled his business! The true test of its public market worth is in its micro-drama ecosystem, consistently converting low-cost storytelling into enduring IP with measurable licensing, adaptation, syndication and franchise value over time,” Figueiredo shares.

Microdramas no longer fringe

Microdramas are new in India but they are no longer fringe. The format — short, serialised episodes of two to three minutes, built around cliffhangers and repeat viewing — sits between social video and traditional OTT. It is designed for users who may not sit through a 40-minute episode, but will watch several quick installments throughout the day. 

Amit Zunjarwad, Chief Product Officer at ShareChat, Moj and Quick TV, says microdramas are fundamentally changing how premium entertainment is produced and consumed. He told e4m earlier,“The format is reshaping consumption behaviour through shorter, tighter storytelling built specifically for mobile-first audiences.”

The market is already responding. Kuku TV, Story TV and Quick TV recently entered India’s top five most-downloaded video streaming apps, according to the latest FICCI–EY report, overtaking established OTT players such as ZEE5, SonyLIV and Netflix in app installs. Sensor Tower data accessed by exchange4media shows Kuku TV and Story TV each clocked over 400,000 global downloads in the past month alone.

While skeptics like Yubraaj Bhattacharya, a filmmaker, say, “Microdrama, what we see, is essentially cheap content and nothing more”, many think otherwise. 

“China's short drama industry initially emerged as a low budget mobile entertainment category which was frequently criticised for relying on fast paced storytelling, emotional hooks and rapid production cycles. Yet as audience demand expanded, short dramas began generating intellectual property value far beyond their original format. Chinese entertainment companies now examine short drama performance data before deciding whether to invest in larger productions,” Figueiredo pointed out. 

India now has similar ingredients: cheap data, rising smartphone penetration, regional-language consumption and growing willingness to pay for digital content. Pranjal Srivastava, an AI expert, quips, “If Kuku’s listing succeeds, it could create a template for other AI-led storytelling platforms. More such companies may look at the IPO route sooner than expected.”