The seed round is led by InfoEdge Ventures and General Catalyst to Launch Chai Shots - A Regional-First Microdrama OTT Platform
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, July 9, 2025: Chai Bisket, one of South India’s most influential digital content companies, has announced the successful close of a $5 million seed round led by InfoEdge Ventures and General Catalyst. The funding will power the launch and growth of Chai Shots, a mobile-first, short-form OTT platform designed to deliver premium fiction in ultra-short formats to India’s next billion entertainment consumers.
Chai Shots is a trailblazing new storytelling platform that brings together everything modern audiences crave - high-quality dramas, emotionally resonant narratives, and mobile-first access - all in two-minute episodes. Designed for Gen Z as well as the rapidly growing Tier 2 and Tier 3 audiences, the app will launch with original content in Telugu and scale across multiple languages in the coming months. Unlike traditional OTTs built for drawing rooms and family viewing, Chai Shots is built for individuals on the move - personal, portable, and deeply cultural.
Founded by Sharath Chandra and Anurag Reddy in 2015, Chai Bisket has spent the last decade shaping the regional content ecosystem. Its YouTube channels and digital content platforms have clocked over 2 billion views, attracts more than 50 million monthly video views, and have produced a massive library of thousands of videos. The company’s storytelling footprint spans across four theatrical films, including the acclaimed *Major*, and numerous blockbuster web series and short dramas - many of which have gone viral and become cultural staples. Notably, the team has been producing short dramas consistently since 2021, long before the format became widely adopted. With a 100+ member team based in Hyderabad, Chai Bisket brings full-stack capabilities across content creation, digital strategy, and audience building - now extending that expertise into technology and product.
The marquee angel investor group backing the company reflects the belief in this vision - including Rana Daggubati (Actor and Entrepreneur), Sri Harsha Majety and Nandan Reddy (co-founders of Swiggy), Phanindra Sama (founder of redBus), Rohit Chennamaneni (Co-Founder of Darwinbox), Alakh Pandey and Prateek(co-founders of PhysicsWallah), Aravind Sanka, Rishikesh SR, and Pavan Guntupalli (co-founders of Rapido), Amar Nagaram (founder of Virgio), TiE Nizamabad and others.
“We’re extremely bullish on microdramas as a format, especially in regional markets like Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada, where there’s both strong demand and high willingness to pay for original content. In this space, content is the product and the Chai Shots team are veterans of the craft, with over a decade of experience in consistently delivering high-quality storytelling. We’re excited to back their vision.”, said Kitty Agarwal, partner at Info Edge ventures.
“In today’s world, storytelling lives in the palm of your hand that's fast, emotional, and unmistakably local. Chai Shots has built a short-video streaming platform that taps into how India consumes content," said Rahul Garg, partner at General Catalyst. "This team isn’t just reacting to culture, they’re creating it. We look forward to partnering with Sharath, Anurag & Krishna as they grow.”
Rana Daggubati, Actor and Enterpreneur said - "The future of stories is fast, local, and emotional. Chai Shots gets that. I’m excited to be part of the new short culture revolution.”
Krishna Mohan Varma, who now leads the company’s technology vision, joins Sharath and Anurag as a Co-Founder of Chai Shots. His addition to the founding team brings product leadership, engineering depth, and long-term technology thinking to the heart of the platform.
Chai Shots was born out of a clear shift in consumer behavior,” said Sharath Chandra, Co-Founder. “While platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels have proven the massive demand for short-form video, the space is still dominated by user-generated content. We believe it's time to elevate the format - to blend the emotional power of fiction with the speed and convenience of short-form, and to do it at scale, in our languages, and on our terms.”
“We believe content is culture - and culture is what people scroll, skip, and binge every day,” said Anurag Reddy, Co-Founder. “We’ve spent ten years building a storytelling engine rooted in emotional truth and regional identity. With Chai Shots, we’re taking that to the next level - by creating a scalable entertainment brand made for mobile, powered by creators, and built for the future of India’s digital generation.”
“I’m excited to be building Chai Shots at the intersection of technology and storytelling,” said Krishna Mohan Varma, Co-Founder. “There’s an immense opportunity to deliver a seamless, intuitive, and emotionally resonant product experience. Our goal is to create not just a video app, but a long-lasting relationship between story, screen, and user.”
Chai Shots will launch in early access soon and aims to release over 100 original shows in the first six months. The company’s long-term vision is to scale Chai Shots into the go-to entertainment app for India’s short-attention economy - deeply local, highly emotional, and designed for how India watches today.
