IPO-bound Kuku bets on microdramas, AI and Bharat’s storytelling economy to drive next phase of growth

Kuku Technologies, the digital entertainment company behind Kuku FM and Kuku TV, is making a larger bet on India’s changing content economy—one where mobile-first storytelling, regional languages and subscription-led consumption are expected to drive the next wave of growth.

That shift comes at a pivotal moment for the Bengaluru-based company. According to reports, Kuku has confidentially filed draft papers with market regulator Sebi for an initial public offering (IPO), seeking to raise ₹2,500–3,500 crore at a valuation of up to ₹15,000 crore ($1.8 billion). The proposed issue is expected to include a combination of fresh issue and offer-for-sale components. Kuku has not publicly commented on the filing.

In an interview with Fortune India conducted before reports emerged of Kuku’s confidential IPO filing, Sachin Singh, Head of Kuku TV, said the company was built around a question traditional media had largely ignored: what kind of content business emerges when audiences consume entertainment on mobile screens, discover stories in regional languages and increasingly become willing to pay for formats built around their daily routines.

“Kuku was conceived as an answer to a question that most of the media industry hadn't yet asked—what does storytelling look like when your audience is someone who encountered English for the first time at college, consumes content on a five-inch screen during a commute, and pays for what genuinely moves them?” Singh said.

What does the next phase of storytelling look like?

That thinking has shaped Kuku’s evolution from an audio storytelling platform into a broader portfolio spanning Kuku FM, Kuku TV, Guru and newer content categories.

“The evolution from audio storytelling to microdramas to Guru has followed the user, not a product roadmap drawn up in a boardroom,” Singh said. “We observed that the same listener who binge-listened to an audio drama at night wanted short, dense knowledge content during the day.”

The company describes Kuku FM, Kuku TV and Guru as different access points to a larger thesis—that the next billion users of digital content in India will be served by mobile-first, vernacular-first formats.

As users increasingly move towards shorter viewing windows and mobile-native consumption, Kuku sees microdramas emerging as a standalone entertainment category rather than an extension of OTT.

“The consumer behaviour shift driving microdrama adoption is straightforward: mobile screens have trained a new kind of attention, and vertical video has been the gateway,” Singh said.

According to the company, microdramas are filling a gap that Bollywood and mainstream OTT platforms were never designed to serve.

“The stories being told in microdramas—family drama, emotional revenge arcs and romance with cultural specificity—are the stories that Tier-2 and Tier-3 India has always wanted, now delivered in a format that fits the commute, the tea break and the half-hour before sleep,” Singh said.

Kuku believes India’s microdrama market could evolve into a multi-billion-dollar opportunity over the next few years, although the category is likely to consolidate over time.

What does Bharat want from digital entertainment?

That thesis is closely tied to Kuku’s long-standing focus on Bharat audiences.

Unlike traditional assumptions that regional consumers are predominantly ad-led users, Kuku argues that vernacular audiences are increasingly showing willingness to subscribe when content feels culturally relevant and frictionless to consume.

“The most important lesson is that Bharat audiences pay for premium content. They are not waiting to graduate to some other kind of content,” Singh said. “They have distinct tastes, distinct emotional registers and distinct relationships with language.”

The company added that trust is built through language, not just pricing. “When someone hears a story in their mother tongue, told with cultural familiarity, the emotional access is completely different.”

The strategy appears to be reflected in the company’s operating model. Kuku claims to have crossed 400 million installs across its ecosystem, built a subscriber base exceeding 10 million users and developed a content library spanning more than 60,000 hours across languages and formats.

Can creators and AI redefine content economics?

To sustain output at scale, Kuku is also investing heavily in creators and technology.

The company says it invests more than ₹200 crore annually into creators and treats creator economics as core infrastructure rather than a distribution expense.

“In a content-first business, creators are your supply chain,” Singh said. “Acquisition, monetisation and retention are only sustainable when creators see a genuine income trajectory—not just an upfront guarantee but a long-term model.”

Artificial intelligence is becoming another lever.

Rather than replacing creators, Kuku says AI is being deployed across story evaluation, script development, editorial feedback, language adaptation and discovery systems to shorten production cycles and improve personalisation.

“The biggest productivity gain is in the early stages of the content lifecycle,” Singh said. “AI accelerates editorial judgment, which changes the pace and economics of the entire pipeline.”

Subscriptions remain Kuku’s primary revenue engine, while advertising and content licensing are emerging as additional monetisation layers.

For Kuku, however, the larger ambition goes beyond formats or platforms. As India’s digital consumption expands deeper into regional markets, the company is betting that the next chapter of entertainment growth will be shaped not by who tells the biggest stories—but by who tells the most relevant ones.

“Our long-term vision is to be the defining storytelling platform of Bharat and eventually to take that storytelling from India to the world,” Singh said.