Holywater Raises $22 Million in Financing Amid Microdramas Arms Race

Ukrainian microdramas company Holywater has raised $22 million in a recent financing round in the latest sign of a scramble to dominate the space.

Holywater, led by co-founders and co-CEOs Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, operates the My Drama app, which is dominated by romance and soapy thriller series. The company also owns the My Passion app, focused on genre books, and the My Muse app for AI-generated series.

The company’s approach has attracted interest in Hollywood, where creators are beginning to dip their toes into the verticals format, even as many remain skeptical of the long-term viability of the business. In October, Fox Entertainment announced that it was taking an equity stake in the company and would be collaborating with Holywater to produce more than 200 shows over the next two years.

This latest funding round for the company was led by Horizon Capital, with U.S. investors including Endeavor Capital and Wheelhouse taking part.

In a statement, co-CEOs Nesvit and Kasianov claimed the investment was the largest so far outside Asia, where the format took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It sends a clear message to the industry: shortform, studio-quality storytelling is here to stay,” they said. “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.”

Holywater is just one of several companies that are vying to become the go-to destination for microdramas, which typically play out over serialized one- to three-minute segments, in the U.S. There are the major incumbents like ReelShort and DramaBox, as well as upstart companies from Hollywood veterans including MicroCo and GammaTime.

The tech giant TikTok is getting in the action as well, recently introducing a dedicated TikTok Minis section on its app that is devoted to the format.

With so many competing apps in the current, unwieldy landscape, competition is fierce to see which platform will become the best known and most frequented for American consumers. Apps typically monetize by using the “freemium” model, offering a few episodes of a story for free and then asking users to pay for the rest.

Horizon Capital senior partner Vasile Tofan claimed Holywater has a “leading position” in this race in a statement. “We look forward to supporting the team as they continue to build a durable, category-defining business,” Tofan said.