We are excited to co-lead the pre-seed round of Fanon, partnering with Jatin Nayak, Nesar Rao, and Arvindmani Satyanarayan as they build the internet’s home for fandom storytelling, to transform how millions of fans create, discover, and share the stories they’ve always imagined.
Fandom isn’t niche anymore. It’s mainstream culture.
Across TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and X, fandom-related content drives an estimated 500 billion views annually. Within that, fanfiction-specific content alone accounts for roughly 50 billion views, and is growing at 30% year-over-year in fan fiction related hashtag views.
The numbers beneath this are equally compelling: 15 million fan creators have published or sold fan works – The top 15,000 creators (“big name fans”) account for roughly half of all views. AO3 welcomed its 10 millionth registered user in February 2026 and records 125 million daily page views. FanFiction.net draws 68 million monthly visits.
The fan merchandise economy runs at approximately $2.7 billion annually, spanning Etsy (roughly $750M in fandom GMV), convention artist alleys ($500M), fan zines and doujinshi ($450M), direct commissions ($400M), print-on-demand platforms like Redbubble ($350M), and cosplay materials ($250M). Creators capture 75% of this value directly. The merch economy is growing at 12% CAGR — four times faster than the studio economy.
Combined, we see the fan economy as a $7 billion market today — roughly $4 billion in advertising value from fan content, and $2.7 billion in fan merchandise — sitting alongside a $400 billion studio economy. We believe we’re early in the curve.
These numbers are proof that millions of people worldwide are active participants rewriting, reimagining, and reshaping the stories they love.
But fandom today is fragmented.
Fans toggle between a dozen platforms just to participate. Twitter for hot takes. Tumblr for meta-analysis. Reddit for discussions. DeviantArt for sketches. Wattpad for written fics. Webtoons for comics. Discord for community. YouTube for video essays.
Each platform serves a piece of the experience, but no one platform serves the whole fan.
And for fan creators, the barriers are steep.
Fan comic and fan video creators lack a dedicated platform for long form episodic storytelling. A fan comic creator has to post panels on Tumblr, promote via TikTok clips, engage their community on Discord, and host the full work on AO3 or Webtoon. Each platform has different formats, different algorithms, different audience behaviors. They’re essentially running 4–5 distribution channels for one piece of content.
If you’re making a 30-episode comic or video series, there’s no platform where a fan can follow it episodically the way they’d follow a show. Notifications for new episodes, a proper reading order, and a binge-friendly interface.
Existing platforms don’t understand fandom-specific signals like tropes, character pairings, or alternate universe types. So fan content gets surfaced by generic engagement metrics rather than by what actually matters to fans.
We believe Fanon, a fan first platform for creators and consumers alike can change this.
Building the core for fans
Fanon is building the single destination where fans can explore alternate storylines through stories, comics, and videos, discuss theories, and engage with a community that shares their obsession. The platform currently hosts fan works across 1,000+ stories and 6000+ episodes, spanning Harry Potter, Marvel, Hazbin Hotel, My Hero Academia, The Lion King, – amongst 250+ other fandoms.
Early traction validates the pull. Fanon has grown organically to 125,000+ users with roughly 20,000 MAU with daily time spent averaging 20+ minutes. The top stories have individually crossed 100,000+ views, with the five biggest titles collectively at over 1.5 million views. 30% of users follow a story and return for new episodes.
Fanon has also begun partnering with studios to keep fan engagement alive between major releases. Their collaboration with Arka Media Works – the studio behind the Baahubali franchise provides an insight into how studios view fan creativity as a channel to be enabled.
Built by fandom natives
Jatin, Nesar, and Arvindmani aren’t just founders building a platform for fans. They are the fans.
Both Jatin and Nesar spent over two years at Kalaari as part of the fellowship program, where they tracked the creator economy and content consumption patterns in depth. Jatin focused on consumer and DTC investments, while Nesar spearheaded marketing projects and dove deep into creator monetization. Their time here gave them conviction in both the scale of the global creator economy and the belief that world-class consumer products can be built from India.
Arvindmani, the CTO and co-founder, brings six years of software development experience from Fidelity Investments and worked closely with Jatin on building scalable systems.
But more importantly, they’re building what they always wished existed.
Fixing the last season of Game of Thrones was a recurring discussion amongst the three, and now their product Fanfix allows fans to share alternate endings to your favourite movies and TV shows.
Partnering for fandom’s next decade
Fandom has always existed, but we can now have better tools and infrastructure to match its cultural influence. As this change get underway, we’re entering an era where anyone with a story can compete with Hollywood – not in budget, but in creativity, authenticity, and connection with their audience.
Vamshi Reddy, Partner at Kalaari Capital: “Fanon is tapping into a cultural behaviour that already exists at massive scale. The team has shown strong product intuition by focusing on fandom-first storytelling and fan expression. With the explosion of creative tools and technology, fan creators will be able to make their own feature length films soon. We believe Fanon has the potential to become the default destination for fan-driven narratives globally.”
We’re proud to back Jatin, Nesar, Arvindmani, and the entire Fanon team as they turn scattered fandom behaviours into a unified platform and, in the process, empower every fan to become a creator.
At Kalaari Capital, we partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are building category-defining companies. Our approach combines patient capital with deep operational support, helping founders navigate the journey from early vision to market leadership.
If you’re a founder building something transformative, we’d love to hear from you. Learn more at kalaari.com
Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm’s ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.
If you are a founder building an early-stage company, write to us at pitch@kalaari.com
