Pratilipi: Ranjeet Pratap Singh on Building India's Largest Vernacular Storytelling Platform

In a country with 22 official languages and thousands of dialects, access to literature has historically been fragmented. Ranjeet Pratap Singh, a voracious reader from a small Hindi-speaking town, felt this pain acutely when he moved to English-speaking environments for his education. His love for Hindi literature was stifled by a lack of access. This personal void sparked the idea for Pratilipi, now India's largest digital storytelling platform. Connecting over 25 million monthly active users with 300,000+ writers across 12 languages, Pratilipi is not just an app; it is a cultural movement democratizing stories for Bharat.

Ranjeet's journey is a testament to the power of solving a personal problem. An engineering graduate from KIIT, he worked with Vodafone before taking the entrepreneurial plunge in 2015. Unlike many tech founders who chase the next big trend, Ranjeet chased his passion for reading. He saw that while the English internet was booming, the "vernacular internet" was a barren land for high-quality, long-form content. He decided to change that, building a platform that would allow anyone to write and read in their mother tongue.

The Problem: The Language Barrier in Literature

For decades, Indian publishing was a gatekeeper-driven industry. If you wrote in English, you had a chance. If you wrote in Hindi, Tamil, or Bengali, your options were limited to local magazines with shrinking circulations. Digital platforms like Kindle were English-centric. There was no "YouTube for Writing" in Indian languages—no place where a writer could publish directly and reach millions.

"I grew up reading Hindi comics and stories," Ranjeet recalls. "When I went to college, I stopped reading them not because I lost interest, but because I couldn't find them. I realized millions of Indians face this disconnect. They want to read in their language, but the content is inaccessible."

The Solution: An Open Platform for All Formats

Pratilipi started as a self-publishing platform for text stories but has evolved into a multimedia powerhouse. Today, it supports literature, comics, audio stories, and podcasts. The core philosophy is freedom: anyone can publish, and the community decides what is good. This "democratization" has unleashed a wave of creativity from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, giving a voice to homemakers, students, and retirees who are now celebrated authors.

Building the Team: Hiring for Resourcefulness

Ranjeet has a unique approach to team building. In the early days, he hired friends and college juniors, prioritizing "resourcefulness" and "high agency" over experience. He believes that skills can be learned, but the ability to figure things out is innate. This culture of ownership has allowed Pratilipi to scale lean, with a small team managing a massive user base.

"I look for people who don't need to be told what to do," he explains. "Startup life is ambiguous. You need people who can look at a vague problem, define it, and then solve it without waiting for a roadmap."

Navigating the Funding Landscape

Pratilipi has raised significant capital from marquee investors like Krafton, Omidyar Network, and Nexus Venture Partners. Ranjeet's fundraising advice is pragmatic: treat investors as partners, not bosses. He emphasizes honesty and alignment of vision. "Don't sell a dream you don't believe in," he advises. "Investors back founders who are obsessed with the problem, not just the solution."

The Future: From Platform to IP Factory

Pratilipi's vision extends beyond being a reading app. Ranjeet sees it as the "Disney of India"—a source of unlimited IP (Intellectual Property). Just as Marvel comics became blockbuster movies, Pratilipi stories are now being adapted into web series and audio shows. By owning the "source code" of the story, Pratilipi is positioned to fuel India's entertainment industry for decades to come.

"The next Harry Potter or Game of Thrones will come from India," Ranjeet asserts. "And it will likely be written in Hindi, Tamil, or Bengali first. We are here to ensure that story finds its audience, in whatever format they prefer."

About the Guest

Ranjeet Pratap Singh is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pratilipi. A Computer Science graduate from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Ranjeet has a diverse background, having worked in telecom and technology before becoming an entrepreneur. He co-founded Pratilipi in 2015 with a mission to bridge the language barrier in Indian literature. Under his leadership, Pratilipi has grown into India's largest storytelling platform, empowering millions of Indians to share their stories in their own languages. Ranjeet is known for his first-principles thinking and his deep belief in the power of the vernacular internet.

Pratilipi is a self-publishing platform that connects readers and writers in 12 Indian languages. It offers a diverse range of content including stories, poems, articles, audiobooks, and comics. With a thriving community of over 25 million users, Pratilipi is revolutionizing how India consumes and creates content, turning amateur writers into celebrities and local stories into global IP.