Self-publishing platform Pratilipi announced on Wednesday that it has raised $48 Mn in a Series D round led by South Korean gaming giant Krafton Inc. The fresh funding round comes barely weeks after it raised INR 22 Cr debt funding from Alteria Capital. Techpluto had exclusively reported about the debt funding.
The Series D round also saw the participation of existing investor Omidyar Network India. Besides, several high profile startup founders including Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal, Delhivery’s Sahil Barua and Meesho’s Vidit Aatrey have equally backed the self-publishing platform in the Series D round.
Chinese tech giant Tencent is also one of the high-profile backers of the Bengaluru-based startup.
Pratilipi hasn’t commented about the company’s valuation post-funding. The seven-year-old firm was valued around $100 Mn during its series C round last year.
Talking to Techpluto, Pratilipi’s CEO Ranjeet Pratap Singh said “part of the capital will be used for scaling the team and the infrastructure but majority of this round’s investment will be used for expanding our new formats and global expansion early next year.”
Speaking particularly about global expansion, Singh said “we hope to expand to neighboring countries by end of this year. The company also plans to foray into the North American countries by mid next year.”
Talking about receiving backing from several high profile startup founders, Pratilipi’s CEO said “It feels great. We had never raised a formal angel round, so I wanted to bring onboard some founders that I look up to and can learn from. Feel very privileged that they have all agreed to come onboard.”
Over the years, Pratilipi has emerged as an undisputed leader in the self-publishing platform. The company claims to be India’s largest digital publishing platform, bridging the gap between readers and writers. However, the company’s biggest USP is that it seeks to connect writers and readers in 12 different Indian languages.
The company had recently forayed in new space like podcast and web series. Its maiden web series Midnight Lily is streaming on MX Player and You Tube.