TVF was valued at $22 million in Tiger Global's exit, down from $82 million in 2019. Revenue hit ₹182 crore in FY25; profit slid to ₹13 crore.
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Tiger Global Management has sold its entire stake in The Viral Fever (TVF), the Indian digital entertainment company behind Kota Factory and Panchayat, in a round that valued the business at $22 million. The price is a quarter of the $82 million valuation from 2019, three people close to the deal told Mint.
The private equity firm sold a stake of up to 40% to investors including Lighthouse India Fund-I and LC Nueva Advisors LLP, the people said. Frontier Globecap Ventures also participated. The sale ends a decade-long holding that began with a $10 million investment in 2016, when TVF was valued at $61 million, Mint reported at the time, and continued with additional funding through 2019.
TVF and Lighthouse Canton declined to comment. Mint's queries emailed to Tiger Global remained unanswered.
The exit comes a decade after Tiger first backed TVF following the success of Kota Factory, a five-episode satirical comedy about students competing for seats at the Indian Institutes of Technology. The firm bought a roughly 25% stake in TVF's parent, Contagious Online Media Network.
TVF started as a YouTube channel in 2012, founded by Arunabh Kumar, producing comic sketches alongside AIB and East India Comedy. It later moved into scripted web shows and launched the TVF Play app. Its YouTube channel now has more than 6 million subscribers.
Between 2015 and 2017, TVF was a fixture for millennial viewers and advertisers. Parody videos of Bollywood actors and news anchors drew large audiences on YouTube. Sketches about everyday family situations were just as popular.
TVF's revenue rose to ₹182.4 crore in 2024-25 from ₹34.3 crore in 2020-21, according to market intelligence platform Tracxn. Net profit peaked at ₹68.3 crore in FY22 before falling to ₹13 crore in FY25. The five-year compound annual growth rate stayed positive at 17%.
TVF last raised a Series D in 2019 from investors including Tiger Global, BlackSoil, StartX, Venture Highway and Naseba. A venture debt round followed in 2021, led by BlackSoil.
The transaction coincides with senior hires across TVF's creative and corporate teams. Shreyansh Pandey, head of TVF Originals, is leaving after eleven years to start an independent venture. Pandey is credited with shows including Kota Factory, Aspirants, Gullak and Cubicles.
Kumar resigned in 2017 after a former employee filed a sexual harassment complaint. A court later acquitted him, citing an unexplained delay in filing the complaint.
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