Holywater raises $22m with backing from Horizon Capital, Endeavor and Wheelhouse
Holywater’s Anatolii Kasianov (left) and Bogdan Nesvit
Holywater, the Ukraine-headquartered microdrama company behind platforms including My Drama and My Muse, has raised US$22m in a financing round led by private equity firm Horizon Capital.
The raise includes “strategic participation” from Endeavor Catalyst, the co-investment arm of media giant Endeavor, and Brent Montgomery’s production group Wheelhouse.
According to Holywater, this represents the “largest single investment round in the microdrama sector to date outside of Asia, surpassing recent raises by Hollywood-backed competitors.” This is likely a reference to GammaTime, a US microdrama drama app founded by former Miramax CEO Bill Block, which raised US$14m in seed funding late last year.
The capital injection comes three months after Fox Entertainment acquired an undisclosed equity stake in Holywater, with plans to produce a slate of more than 200 original microseries for Holywater-owned apps over the next two years.
This latest raise also provides further evidence that investors see a long-term future for microdramas, which have stirred fierce debate in recent months over whether they are a passing fad or legitimately an integral part of the future of the global content business.
Holywater said the cash injection would accelerate its goal of becoming the “mobile-first Netflix for vertical video streaming,” as well as allowing it to invest further in the development of its “AI-driven content ecosystem” to include “AI-enabled comics and anime, in addition to significantly strengthening its IP incubation and distribution engine to expand into new genres and content categories.”
As well as its deal with Fox Entertainment, in recent months Holywater has struck a 70-title deal with fellow Ukrainian outfit Amo Pictures and discussed plans to expand into several new genres.
“This is the largest investment in the microdrama space to date outside of Asia, and it sends a clear message to the industry: shortform, studio-quality storytelling is here to stay,” said Holywater co-founders and co-CEOs Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov in a joint statement.
“Vertical series are no longer an experiment or an uncertain niche – they are proving to be a scalable, long-term format and AI-powered IP incubation engine for the next generation of global hits across multiple genres, far beyond microdramas. With the support of our partners, we’re pushing the entertainment industry forward as we redefine how stories are discovered and experienced worldwide.”
Wheelhouse CEO Montgomery added: “The next generation of entertainment is being built for where and how audiences consume content, and Holywater has created a standout vertical storytelling platform with a clear scalable monetisation engine.
“Wheelhouse has been building our internal AI and creative teams to further explore how these tools can unlock new forms of format development and production across our ecosystem of athletes, entertainers, creators and production companies. We see Holywater as a great fit for our strategy.”
