iWorld
Stage secures $12.5m funding to take regional content centre stage
MUMBAI: Stage, the streaming platform championing India’s regional languages and cultures, has secured $12.5m in Series B funding led by Goodwater Capital and Blume Ventures, with Physis Capital and angel investors also piling in.
The platform, which focuses on underserved linguistic communities, has become something of a dark horse in India’s crowded streaming market. Stage now boasts Rs 180 crore in annual recurring revenue, 4.4m paying households and over 20m app installations—impressive figures for a service that began by exclusively targeting Haryanvi speakers.
Stage’s numbers tell a compelling story: a 289 per cent surge in revenue and 286 per cent jump in subscribers over the past year. Popular originals such as Videshi Bahu (Haryanvi), Kaand 2010 (Haryanvi) and Bhawani (Rajasthani) have helped drive growth, alongside the National Award-winning Dada Lakhmi featuring Bollywood veteran Yashpal Sharma.
“What if stories could make people fall in love with their roots? That’s the question we asked five years ago,” reflected Stage chief executive and co-founder Vinay Singhal, on X (foremerly Twitter). “To everyone who’s ever hidden their dialect to sound ‘professional’… Walk taller today. Your culture, your dialect is not a liability. It is a matter of pride. And we’ll keep fighting to prove it. And this funding isn’t just about capital—it’s a resounding validation of India’s regional culture.”
The platform’s success challenges the conventional wisdom that regional content remains a niche play. Harsh Mani Tripathi, chief product officer and co-founder, puts it bluntly: “Every subscriber who joins Stage isn’t just a user—they’re custodians of their culture.”
Ritesh Malik, a Stage board member, waxed lyrical about the company’s mission: “By amplifying underrepresented voices and making regional dialects aspirational, Stage is not just shaping content—it’s shaping culture.
With Bhojpuri content now live, Stage’s roadmap for 2025-26 involves breaking into new cultural territories while deepening its footprint in existing markets. “This isn’t just a growth story. It’s a movement. As we always say: ‘Company Nahin, Hum Kranti Hain!’,” declares Singhal.
Reflecting on the journey, Karthik Reddy of Blume noted with satisfaction: “To see it bloom to Rs 15 crore a month when sceptics said no one would pay or watch this as primary content is very satisfying.”
The once-free Haryanvi app has certainly found its voice—and paying audience.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
