Chai Bisket raises $5 Mn in seed round led by Infoedge Ventures and General Catalyst

Hyderabad-based Chai Bisket, a microdrama over the top (OTT) platform has raised $5 million in a seed round led by InfoEdge Ventures and General Catalyst.

The round also included well-known angel investors like actor Rana Daggubati, Swiggy co-founders Sri Harsha Majety and Nandan Reddy, redBus founder Phanindra Sama, Darwinbox co-founder Rohit Chennamaneni, PhysicsWallah co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek, the rapido co-founders and Virgio founder Amar Nagaram.

The startup plans to use the funds to launch Chai Shots, a regional-first, mobile-only microdrama OTT platform. 

Read also- Drone tech startup Enercomp secures Rs 2 Cr in bridge round

“We believe content is culture — and culture is what people scroll, skip, and binge every day,” said Reddy. “We’ve spent ten years building a storytelling engine rooted in emotional truth and regional identity.”

Daggubati, one of the investors in the company, 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.”

“We’re extremely bullish on micro dramas 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,” said Kitty Agarwal, partner at Info Edge ventures.

About Chai Bisket

Co-founded in 2015 by Sharath Chandra, Anurag Reddy and Krishna Mohan Varma, Hyderabad-based Chai Bisket has made its mark in regional digital entertainment through its YouTube channels and content platforms, claiming over 2 billion total views and 50 million monthly video views. The company has a team of over 100 members.

Advertisment

Chai Shots offers short fiction stories in two-minute episodes, designed for Gen Z and tier II–III viewers. Focused on emotional, high-quality storytelling in regional languages, the platform is made for mobile viewing and will launch in Telugu first, followed by Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.

Chai Shots plans to release over 100 original shows in its first six months. Unlike user-generated short video platforms, it combines content and technology to deliver short-format fiction storytelling.