Colombia’s Idilio raises US$5m to scale microdrama platform | News

Colombian microdrama platform Idilio, founded by model and TV presenter Gabriela Tafur, has closed a US$5m seed round to accelerate its growth in the vertical video market for Spanish-speaking audiences.

The news was announced during the Vertical Video Summit in LA and first reported by Forbes Colombia.

The round was led by a16z Speedrun, Andreessen Horowitz’s accelerator focused on media and entertainment, and included participation from Goodwater Capital; David Vélez, founder of Nubank, in a personal capacity; and WndrCo, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s investment firm.

Katzenberg’s involvement is notable given his role in short-lived shortform video platform Quibi. The Hollywood executive, former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and co-founder of DreamWorks, was one of the driving forces behind the streamer, which survived only a few months and is now often viewed as having arrived before the market was ready.

Idilio, meanwhile, is looking to capitalise on this new momentum. The company presents itself as the number-one microdrama app in Latin America and claims to have surpassed 1.3 million downloads across the App Store and Google Play.

It has also been building industry partnerships and closed a deal this year with GammaTime to produce a slate of five microdramas in Spanish.