Months after releasing an OTT video streaming platform Matrubharti Vishesh in July 2019, a vernacular content startup Matrubharti, based out of Ahmedabad has secured INR 3.24 crore in an angel round of funding from NRI angel investors.
With this funding, Matrubharti aims to add content in three South Indian languages soon on its platform and build stronger technology and data intelligence to engage users better. The money would also help it boost its sales efforts besides expanding into geographies with a strong presence of Indian diaspora.
Mahendra Sharma, Founder and CEO, Matrubharti said, “It is their love for India and its languages that has magnetised the interest of our investors, and validated by the growth potential seen from the macros of the next 500 million internet users in India will be from semi urban and rural ‘Bharat’ who’d prefer to consume their informational and entertainment content in vernacular. We, at Matrubharti, aspire to be the Netflix of Bharat and a platform of choice for such internet consumers.”
Matrubharti was founded by Mahendra Sharma in 2013. The platform claims that it now has over one million registered users and over 250,000 monthly active users.
Matrubharti is partnering with content production houses, theatre schools, and event organisers to help them monetise their visual content on its community platform, Sharma added.
“While monetisation is a challenge faced by competing OTT platforms, we are overcoming this through better user engagement. Users of Matrubharti spend as much as 25 minutes per session per day on the vernacular books and videos, which is above the industry standard. We believe that the longer the screen time, the higher the possibility to monetise via advertisements,” Mahendra further said.
Matrubharti said its content from over 100 offline events conducted across 30 cities over the last three years under its banner differentiates it from competition.