Latest news with #SanidhyaNarain
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Dashverse raises $13 million led by Peak XV Partners
Dashverse co-founders (L-R) Sanidhya Narain, Soumyadeep Mukherjee, Lalith Gudipat BENGALURU: AI-powered entertainment startup Dashverse has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from existing investors Z47 and Stellaris Venture Partners. The funding comes as DashReels, Dashverse's newly launched microdrama app, crossed 5 million downloads within a month of launch. Dashverse said the app is part of its broader ecosystem that includes a generative video studio, Dashtoon, a mobile comics app, and Dashtoon Studio, a web-based AI creator platform. The company said these products together have drawn over 20 million users globally. Dashverse plans to use the funds to invest in core AI technology and product development aimed at mobile-first, serialised storytelling. The company said it is addressing challenges in producing episodic content at scale, which it noted requires complex tools and significant resources. 'We are entering a new era where content creation is no longer gated by resources, but by imagination,' Sanidhya Narain, co-founder and CEO of Dashverse said. He added generative AI could do for storytelling what camera phones did for social media content. Dashverse was founded in 2023 in Bengaluru by Narain, Lalith Gudipati, and Soumyadeep Mukherjee. Abhishek Mohan, principal at Peak XV Partners, said the startup's proprietary AI combined with its understanding of storytelling and creator workflows positions it strongly in the sector. 'We were impressed by the team's execution, the rapid traction of their consumer apps, and their vision to build the engine for modern entertainment,' he added. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays , public holidays , current gold rate and silver price .
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
AI entertainment startup Dashverse raises $13 mn to power GenAI content
Dashverse, an artificial intelligence (AI) entertainment company that develops platforms for mobile-first entertainment, on Tuesday announced it has closed a $13 million Series A funding round. The investment was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Stellaris Venture Partners. With the fresh capital, the company plans to strengthen its core AI technology and drive product innovation for AI-generated, mobile-first storytelling. DashReels crosses five million downloads in a month The funding comes as DashReels, the company's new micro drama application, surpassed five million downloads within a month of launch. According to Dashverse, demand for mobile-native episodic content such as micro dramas has been growing globally, creating a significant opportunity for storytelling in this emerging entertainment format. From digital comics to integrated video platforms The Bengaluru-headquartered company first proved its model with Dashtoon, an AI-powered platform for creating and distributing digital comics. Building on that success, it adopted an integrated approach to video with enabling creators to generate high-quality serialised content, followed by DashReels to distribute mobile-first micro dramas. Together, Dashverse's platforms have more than 20 million users worldwide. Founded in 2023 with a focus on creators Established in 2023 by Sanidhya Narain, Lalith Gudipati, and Soumyadeep Mukherjee, Dashverse enables creators to develop, publish, and monetise stories across formats such as comics and micro dramas. Generative AI to unlock the next wave of storytelling Commenting on the fundraise, Narain, co-founder and chief executive officer, said: 'We are entering a new era where content creation is no longer gated by resources but by imagination. Just as camera phones turned everyone into a creator and unlocked platforms like Instagram and TikTok, generative AI will do the same for storytelling — but with far more powerful formats. This funding fuels our mission to build the creative infrastructure for this shift, where mobile-first, serialised content becomes the default, not the exception.'
News18
3 days ago
- Business
- News18
Dashverse raises USD 13 mn in funding round led by Peak XV Partners
Agency: PTI Last Updated: New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) AI startup Dashverse has raised USD 13 million, about Rs 114 crore, in a funding round led by venture capital firm Peak XV Partners, the company said on Tuesday. Stellaris Venture Partners and Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) also participated in the funding round of the startup which focuses on platforms for generating entertainment content using artificial intelligence. 'Dashverse, the full stack AI entertainment company developing platforms for mobile-first entertainment, today announced it has closed a USD 13 million Series A funding, making it the largest Series A round in the sector. 'The round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) with participation from returning investors Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Stellaris Venture Partners," the company said in a statement. Dashverse has over 90 per cent of its team based in India. Talking about the fund utilisation, Dashverse , Co-founder and CEO, Sanidhya Narain told PTI that the company will mainly use the fund for the development and operations of web application and mobile app DashReels. Narain said that the cost of training even a single image model using GPU is as high as USD 2 million dollars and therefore the platform requires huge cost to operate. 'A lot of investment will go into remaining on the cutting edge with how fast AI is developing and how expensive it is to train these models," he said. The company has applied for seeking access to government-funded GPU facilities under the IndiaAI mission and is waiting for approvals to access more high-end servers to lower its cost of technology development. Narain expects the distribution business to reach break-even soon but the company's goal is to create a very robust and large ecosystem that will require continuous efforts and hiring even more and better talent. He said even good AI talents are coming at very high cost. 'A million dollars has become a joke. So, just to attract talent and to be able to build, in the coming years also a lot of investment will flow into it. I hope we are able to place the money that we did to stay on the cutting edge," Narain said. The company will initially focus on achieving a threshold of 100 million users before expanding business overseas. 'We have our aspiration to go global. But first we want to improve and build a payroll in the India market. If we are a winner in this AI and microdata space, our ambition is to go global. 'There is not a global product similar to us like that in the world. So, we want to go there first as soon as we prove it," Narain said. The company is also planning to come up with a 'freemium model' after 6-7 months for users which will give access to limited features to users for free and rest of the tools will be for paid users only, he said. PTI PRS DRR view comments First Published: August 12, 2025, 12:15 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
AI entertainment startup Dashverse raises $13 million from Peak XV Partners, Z47, others
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills The days of streaming only movies and television series are over. With the rise of short-form video content in the past two years, there has been an increase in episodic content in short videos on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. These are 30-second to one-minute-long episodes of short stories, viewed while scrolling through your day. Dashverse , a Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based company, is tapping into this trend with its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Frameo AI , which helps creators craft video-based stories using its 'vibe creation' tool, an approach similar to vibe coding. The company's mobile app, DashReels, serves as the showcase for this Tuesday, the company announced that it has secured $13 million in a funding round, marking the largest Series A raised in the mobile-first entertainment sector. The round was led by Peak XV Partners, with existing investors Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Stellaris Venture Partners also has positioned itself as a full-stack AI entertainment company, focusing on platforms for mobile-first storytelling. The fresh capital will be used to enhance its core AI technologies as well as fueling product company's mission is to propel the next wave of AI-generated narrative experiences, catering to the exploding appetite for bite-sized digital stories. The company's mobile application for this serialised content, DashReels, has crossed five million users in a little under two months, cofounder and CEO Sanidhya Narain told ET. In six to eight months, it aims to cross the 100-million user a web application, can create a story from scratch as well, but Narain said the company wants to give a platform to stories of creators. "We still need human creativity in this process, so you need your own story. Our platform will help you convert it into a video, with AI-generated characters, in whichever setting you deem fit. This platform essentially helps creators become a one-person production studio," he only supporting the Hindi language, the app will launch support for Tamil and Telugu this month, and plans to add 10 languages in the coming runs on a subscription model and shares revenue with creators, similar to platforms such as YouTube, based on the number of views these videos signature offering aims to empower creators to experiment with new forms of storytelling, blurring the lines between traditional content production and generative AI-driven visual narratives. This is to push influencers and digital storytellers to build audiences online, making episodic video content more personal, immersive, and scalable. The company is also targeting book authors, screenplay writers and storytellers whose writing never sees the light of day.'The creator economy is undergoing a seismic shift driven by generative AI , and Dashverse is at the very heart of this transformation,' said Peak XV's Abhishek Mohan in a statement. 'Their unique approach, combining proprietary AI with a deep understanding of storytelling and creator workflows, sets them apart."Dashverse has a team of 25 with the majority based in Bengaluru."We first aim to scale in India, but this has global applications. So, with this funding, we will build research and development and build out our AI stack. And then we have our eyes on expansion as well," Narain added.
