Applications
Video content aggregator secures $4 mn in Series A funding
MUMBAI: Video content aggregator Plizy has raised $4 million in a Series A round from Atlas Venture.
With this new round of funding, Plizy will focus on expanding its audience, aggregating more content from providers such as Cinemax, Snagfilm and Starz, and building out its offerings across multiple platforms, specifically on Android and iOS.
Plizy previously raised $1.2 million in angel round funding, joined by notable investor and co-founder of Fotolia, Oleg Tschelzhoff.
The content agregator first launched its iPad app in May 2011 to allow users to find relevant online videos based on their individual interest graph.
In November 2012, Plizy launched its version 2.0 with a completely new Website and iPad app that offers a brand new experience across videos, movies and TV Shows, and continues to offer content discovery and sharing capabilities with deeper personalization.
“We are thrilled to have Atlas Venture as our sole investor because of our long standing relationship with them and their success with companies like Dailymotion – the largest digital media company to come out of Europe,” said Plizy founder and CEO Jonathan Benassaya.
"As video content is fragmented across many sites there is no easy way for consumers to get access to the content they want. Plizy offers a unique service for consumers to seamlessly search, organize, watch and share any movie, TV show or video online.”
David Marcus, President of PayPal will join Plizy’s board of directors alongside Fred Destin, partner in the technology group at Atlas Venture. Both bring deep experience in web services and consumer facing innovation.
Plizy is available on web browser and through its iPad app, and content can also be viewed on TVs using the app through Apple Airplay. Plizy currently has partners like Amazon Prime, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, Dailymotion, HBO Go, Hulu, Hulu+, iTunes, Netflix, Vimeo, and YouTube.
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
