Bengaluru, India & San Francisco, USA Dashverse, the full stack AI entertainment company developing platforms for mobile-first entertainment, today announced it has closed a $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.
This funding milestone comes as DashReels, their newly launched microdrama app achieves rapid growth, surpassing 5 million downloads within a month of launch.
Audience demand for mobile-native, episodic content like microdramas has exploded globally, creating a massive opportunity for storytelling in this new entertainment format. However, producing this content at scale remains a significant bottleneck, requiring complex tools and studio-level resources. Dashverse is tackling this challenge head-on.
Dashverse first proved its model with Dashtoon, its popular AI-powered platform for creating and distributing digital comics. Building on that success, the company has taken an integrated approach to video, with Frameo.AI enabling creators to generate high-quality serialized content using AI, and DashReels distributing these mobile-first microdramas to a growing global audience. Together, this ecosystem has propelled Dashverse to over 20 million users worldwide, establishing it as a frontrunner in AI-native entertainment.
“We’re entering a new era where content creation is no longer gated by resources, but by imagination,” said Sanidhya Narain, Co-founder and CEO of Dashverse. “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, serialized content becomes the default, not the exception.”
Quote from Peak XV Partners
“The creator economy is undergoing a seismic shift driven by generative AI, and Dashverse is at the very heart of this transformation,” said Abhishek Mohan, Principal at Peak XV. “Their unique approach, combining proprietary AI with a deep understanding of storytelling and creator workflows, sets them apart. We were impressed by the team’s execution, the rapid traction of their consumer apps, and their ambitious vision to build the engine for modern entertainment. We are thrilled to partner with them.”
Quote from Z47
“Dashverse is building a powerful engine for mobile-first, AI-native storytelling, at a pace that matches how audiences consume today.” said Aakash Kumar, Managing Director at Z47. “As one of India’s most promising AI startups, they reflect the country’s growing edge in global innovation. With a category-defining product and founder-led ambition, Dashverse is shaping the future of entertainment.”
Quote from Stellaris Venture Partners
“We partnered with Lalith, Sanidhya, and Soumyadeep at the idea stage, when they were already ahead of the curve, envisioning an AI-native future for entertainment well before the world knew of ChatGPT.” said Naman Lahoty, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners. “Today, they’ve built one of the finest applied-AI teams in the country. Doubling down on our investment reflects our deep conviction in their ability to build a global, category-defining company in this space.”
Founded in 2023 in Bengaluru by Sanidhya Narain, Lalith Gudipati, and Soumyadeep Mukherjee, Dashverse began with a bold vision to unite artificial intelligence and storytelling. Today’s funding milestone marks the next chapter in Dashverse’s journey to empower creators and advance its mission of making AI powered entertainment accessible on a global scale.
