PUBG maker, Krafton, invests $48 million in Pratilipi – morningtidings

Online storytelling platform Pratilipi announced that it has raised a fresh round of funding of $48 million from Krafton– the makers of PUBG. This funding round takes the total amount Pratilipi has raised till date to $78.8 million.
Bengaluru headquartered Pratilipi was co-founded in 2015 by Prashant Gupta, Sahradayi Modi, Rahul Ranjan, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan and Ranjeet Pratap Singh. It started as an online reading-writing platform in Indian languages that now has over 3.7 lakh writers and 30 million monthly active readers in 12 Indian languages.
Over the last 18 months, Pratilipi has launched two new products; Pratilipi FM and Pratilipi Comics and acquired two companies; IVM Podcast and The Write Order. It has also started partnering with the ecosystem partners to bring engaging, high quality literary content in other formats such as traditional books, web series and animation.
“With the Krafton investment, Pratilipi and Krafton will also start working on finding the best Pratilipi stories that can be translated into globally successful gaming franchises,” the company said in a statement.
This new round of funding is going to help Pratilipi strengthen its IP acquisition and development across various formats including audio books, podcasts, comics, web series, movies and games etc. Part of the investment will be utilised for expansion in several overseas markets, it added.
“Over the last 12-18 months we have seen a lot of progress, expanding into some new formats as well as finding newer ways for our creators to be successful. We are both pleased and privileged to partner with KRAFTON, who shares our love for great stories and IP,” said Ranjeet Pratap Singh, CEO, Pratilipi.
The company’s existing investor, Omidyar Network India, also participated in the round along with a host of start- up founders including Hemesh Singh and Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Nishith Rastogi (Locus), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), Vidit Aatrey (Meesho), Mekin Maheshwari (Udhyam), Amit Agarwal (NoBroker) and Ranjeet Pratap Singh, CEO, Pratilipi. Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Pratilipi on this transaction.