HOLYWATER TECH: The rising star of the vertical entertainment industry
HOLYWATER TECH was founded in Kyiv in 2020 as a digital startup company by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov and in its first year it developed five applications before shifting its focus to building a new content ecosystem first with the launch of My Passion, a mobile application for books, in 2021, and four years later with the introduction of My Muse, an AI-powered platform for generating series. That very same year, the company started hitting the headlines of the international press announcing its partnerships with FOX Entertainment and Dhar Mann Studios as well as a successful January 2026 funding round worth $22 million led by Horizon Capital.
In this interview, the CEETV team talks exclusively with the two co-founders and co-CEOs of HOLYWATER TECH about the strategies that make the company’s content and platforms so successful. Sasha Tkachenko, Head of Studio, My Drama, also joined the conversation to talk about the development of original content for My Drama, what types of stories and partners is HOLYWATER TECH looking for, and how actual “rating” of each story is being evaluated, in order to accelerate the success of the stories that will follow suit.
In this interview, the CEETV team talks exclusively with the two co-founders and co-CEOs of HOLYWATER TECH about the strategies that make the company’s content and platforms so successful. Sasha Tkachenko, Head of Studio, My Drama, also joined the conversation to talk about the development of original content for My Drama, what types of stories and partners is HOLYWATER TECH looking for, and how actual “rating” of each story is being evaluated, in order to accelerate the success of the stories that will follow suit.
Sasha Tkachenko, Head of Studio, My Drama
Bogdan, HOLYWATER TECH has grown from a Kyiv tech startup into a global player in vertical video and microdramas. Why did you choose that name for the company?
Bogdan Nesvit, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HOLYWATER TECH: It’s funny, but the company name came together well before we officially launched. It’s made up of two words that, together, reflect the broader mission behind HOLYWATER TECH.
HOLY represents a community united by shared values and purpose, while WATER symbolizes adaptability and strength in constant motion. Together, HOLYWATER reflects our mission today: building a resilient, people-first company that can evolve quickly and reshape how stories are created and distributed. The recently added TECH underscores our technology-first identity—an emphasis that has been central to the company from the very beginning.
Looking back at your journey from founding the company in 2020 to now, what strategic decisions do you feel were most pivotal to your success?
Bogdan Nesvit: Forgive the pun, but one of the most pivotal moments for HOLYWATER TECH was when we pivoted our strategy toward building a content ecosystem and sold our consumer app portfolio. That decision set us on the path to developing My Passion, a book platform that has since become our largest engine for IP generation and testing. Through My Passion, we’re able to test hundreds of books each month and greenlight the most promising titles for live-action production.
In 2024, we launched My Drama, our vertical streaming platform, which has since become the biggest product in our ecosystem. In just one year, the platform grew 3×, becoming the top vertical streaming platform among U.S. and European companies and earning the Webby Award for Best Streaming Service in 2025. In 2025, we also launched My Muse, an AI-generated streaming platform that allows us to create series in days and test pilots quickly before scaling them on My Drama.
Together, these products form an AI-first entertainment network that spans across 85 million users, where IP is discovered, created, adapted, and distributed to global audiences in the formats they engage with most. It’s a flexible ecosystem designed to collaborate with creators and studios worldwide, helping them bring stories to life and reach new audiences.
In October 2025, FOX Entertainment acquired an equity stake in HOLYWATER TECH and committed to producing more than 200 original vertical video titles for My Drama over the next two years. What were the key motivations for Holywater in entering this strategic partnership with a major Hollywood studio?
Anatolii Kasianov, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HOLYWATER TECH: From the very launch of My Drama, our goal was to move vertical series beyond soapy microdramas and build a truly mainstream entertainment format. To do that, we needed more original IP across genres and the ability to scale high-quality production.
That naturally led us to Los Angeles, where we met with studio executives and producers interested in exploring new formats and reaching new audiences. FOX was one of the first studios we connected with, and they immediately saw value in the technology and ecosystem we were building.
The partnership works because it brings together the strengths of both sides: HOLYWATER TECH’s data-driven IP discovery, deep user insights, and mobile-first distribution, combined with FOX’s storytelling expertise and production scale. We see it as an evolution for both Hollywood and vertical storytelling.
What have been the biggest creative or operational challenges you’ve encountered working with FOX on such a large and diverse vertical video slate?
Sasha Tkachenko, Head of Studio, My Drama: When working with studios, one of the most important factors is alignment—a shared vision, openness to experimentation, and a genuine eagerness to create great stories. FOX Entertainment has been an excellent partner in this regard, bringing deep expertise and a strong IP foundation. Together, we’ve already created standout titles such as Swapped Bodies With My Secret Crush and Her Heart Held Hostage, and we’re genuinely excited about what’s coming next.
You are also actively cooperating with companies from Ukraine. Tell us more about your relationship with Starlight Production and Megogo. What are your plans for the Ukrainian market?
Sasha Tkachenko: We also collaborate with a major Ukrainian production company, AMO Pictures. HOLYWATER TECH is a global company that has Ukrainian roots, so working with partners from Ukraine feels natural and comfortable for us. Ukrainian production companies offer a very high level of content production at a relatively accessible cost.
With Starlight, we produced our first reality project and are currently exploring ways to continue collaborating going forward. With Megogo, our relationship is that of a licensing partnership through which they distribute our content.
Are you also looking for partners coming from CEE? Have you seen interest in your content from players in the region?
Sasha Tkachenko: We are a global company, and our content is available across the CEE region. When it comes to interest and audience size, this is historically linked to a country’s population. Within the CEE market, Poland stands out as a historically large market in terms of both content production and consumption. We also collaborate with production companies across the region.
The recently announced multiyear deal with Dhar Mann Studios is set to deliver an initial slate of 40 narrative driven vertical titles for My Drama while Dhar Mann retains ownership and creative control. What made this collaboration attractive for HOLYWATER TECH, and how does it fit into your global content strategy?
Bogdan Nesvit: At HOLYWATER TECH, our mission is to unlock creators’ potential and help them reach global audiences through new, mobile-first storytelling formats. That’s exactly why the collaboration with Dhar Mann Studios was such a natural fit. Dhar Mann is one of the most influential digital storytellers today, recognized by Forbes as the 2 Top Creator in 2024 and 2025 and named to the inaugural TIME100 Creators list in 2025.
This partnership also builds on the strategic foundation we established earlier with FOX Entertainment. That relationship is already attracting top-tier studios and creators like Dhar Mann, who benefit from FOX’s deep content expertise, access to talent, and production resources, combined with HOLYWATER TECH’s data, audience insights, IP incubation, and distribution engine.
More broadly, this signals a key shift in the market: leading creators are entering vertical storytelling and bringing their loyal audiences with them. That’s a major step toward turning what was once a niche format into mainstream entertainment in the U.S., which has been our goal from the start. Like the FOX partnership and our recent investment round, this deal marks an important milestone for the vertical video industry outside of China.
Dhar Mann’s audience spans more than 160 million followers globally. How are you approaching the creative and business balance between his style of storytelling and HOLYWATER TECH’s existing vertical narrative formats?
Bogdan Nesvit: It’s very important for us to celebrate each creator’s artistic style, and that’s especially true when working with someone like Dhar Mann, whose storytelling voice resonates with more than 160 million followers worldwide.
At the same time, HOLYWATER TECH acts as a technology and distribution partner, providing a system that allows stories to be tested early and quickly distributed to global audiences in a vertical, mobile-first format. We also share our vertical playbook and deep user insights to help creators understand what scales within our ecosystem and beyond.
Combined with Dhar Mann’s creative strengths and the production expertise supported by FOX, this creates a strong synergy—one that allows his stories to evolve further while reaching new audiences through vertical storytelling.
HOLYWATER TECH also recently closed a $22 million funding round led by Horizon Capital with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and Wheelhouse, described as one of the largest in the vertical video/microdrama sector outside Asia. What specific growth initiatives will this funding enable?
Anatolii Kasianov: HOLYWATER TECH plans to deploy the newly raised $22 million with a strong focus on platform leverage rather than brute-force scaling. The investment is aimed at strengthening the systems that allow the company to operate faster, smarter, and at greater scale. Specifically:
1/ Technology & IP discovery: expanding recommendation systems, analytics, and AI-driven IP discovery to shorten the feedback loop between audience demand and content creation.
2/ AI-native production pipelines: scaling AI-assisted production across vertical video, books, AI-generated series, and new formats such as comics and anime, enabling the release of 120–200 series per year without sacrificing quality.
3/ Market expansion & partnerships: deepening partnerships—especially in the U.S.—with studios, creators, and premium partners to establish vertical series as a mainstream entertainment format.
Part of the investment strategy is to scale AI driven content tools and expand into formats like AI comics and anime alongside vertical video. How do you see the role of AI shaping the future of storytelling at HOLYWATER TECH?
Anatolii Kasianov: To answer this question, I’d like to explain how AI is incorporated now, and what other plans we have for it in the future.
HOLYWATER TECH is an AI-first entertainment company that pairs creators’ imagination with AI efficiency to bring stories to life and deliver them to global audiences. AI is deeply embedded in our workflows to automate repetitive processes, speed up iteration, and improve scale, while all core creative decisions remain led by human creators.
Today, HOLYWATER TECH’s ecosystem reaches 85 million users and includes My Passion (digital publishing and IP discovery), My Muse (AI-generated video storytelling), and My Drama (live-action vertical streaming). Together, they form a fluid, multi-format content pipeline.
AI delivers the most immediate impact in adaptation—moving stories from books to scripts to video—and in production and post-production, where data, automation, and tooling allow us to create content up to 10× faster and at a fraction of traditional costs. On My Drama, AI is primarily used in post-production and localization to efficiently scale content across markets. On My Passion, writers use AI to streamline research, planning, and drafting, while maintaining full creative control. My Muse sits at the center of experimentation, where AI enables rapid visual iteration, storyboarding, and format testing.
Overall, AI acts as a force multiplier across the pipeline—enhancing speed, scale, and learning—while creativity, narrative direction, and taste remain human-driven, as it should be.
With strong engagement metrics and award recognition for My Drama, how do you measure success in the vertical video format versus traditional long form television or streaming content?
Sasha Tkachenko: We measure success in vertical video differently than in traditional long-form TV or streaming, because the viewer behavior and consumption context is diverse. In vertical storytelling, success starts with engagement density — how quickly a story hooks viewers, how consistently they return episode after episode, and how deeply they progress through a series in short sessions.
Beyond raw views, we focus on metrics like completion rates, episodes watched per user, retention across story arcs, and speed to validation — how fast a concept proves demand. That allows us to iterate and scale stories much earlier than in long-form production cycles.
At the same time, awards and critical recognition matter because they signal that vertical series can deliver not just engagement, but quality storytelling. Ultimately, we don’t see vertical and long-form as competing formats — they serve different moments and audiences. Our goal is to build vertical storytelling as a mainstream format with its own success benchmarks, optimized for mobile-first consumption.
Bogdan Nesvit, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HOLYWATER TECH: It’s funny, but the company name came together well before we officially launched. It’s made up of two words that, together, reflect the broader mission behind HOLYWATER TECH.
HOLY represents a community united by shared values and purpose, while WATER symbolizes adaptability and strength in constant motion. Together, HOLYWATER reflects our mission today: building a resilient, people-first company that can evolve quickly and reshape how stories are created and distributed. The recently added TECH underscores our technology-first identity—an emphasis that has been central to the company from the very beginning.
Looking back at your journey from founding the company in 2020 to now, what strategic decisions do you feel were most pivotal to your success?
Bogdan Nesvit: Forgive the pun, but one of the most pivotal moments for HOLYWATER TECH was when we pivoted our strategy toward building a content ecosystem and sold our consumer app portfolio. That decision set us on the path to developing My Passion, a book platform that has since become our largest engine for IP generation and testing. Through My Passion, we’re able to test hundreds of books each month and greenlight the most promising titles for live-action production.
In 2024, we launched My Drama, our vertical streaming platform, which has since become the biggest product in our ecosystem. In just one year, the platform grew 3×, becoming the top vertical streaming platform among U.S. and European companies and earning the Webby Award for Best Streaming Service in 2025. In 2025, we also launched My Muse, an AI-generated streaming platform that allows us to create series in days and test pilots quickly before scaling them on My Drama.
Together, these products form an AI-first entertainment network that spans across 85 million users, where IP is discovered, created, adapted, and distributed to global audiences in the formats they engage with most. It’s a flexible ecosystem designed to collaborate with creators and studios worldwide, helping them bring stories to life and reach new audiences.
In October 2025, FOX Entertainment acquired an equity stake in HOLYWATER TECH and committed to producing more than 200 original vertical video titles for My Drama over the next two years. What were the key motivations for Holywater in entering this strategic partnership with a major Hollywood studio?
Anatolii Kasianov, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HOLYWATER TECH: From the very launch of My Drama, our goal was to move vertical series beyond soapy microdramas and build a truly mainstream entertainment format. To do that, we needed more original IP across genres and the ability to scale high-quality production.
That naturally led us to Los Angeles, where we met with studio executives and producers interested in exploring new formats and reaching new audiences. FOX was one of the first studios we connected with, and they immediately saw value in the technology and ecosystem we were building.
The partnership works because it brings together the strengths of both sides: HOLYWATER TECH’s data-driven IP discovery, deep user insights, and mobile-first distribution, combined with FOX’s storytelling expertise and production scale. We see it as an evolution for both Hollywood and vertical storytelling.
What have been the biggest creative or operational challenges you’ve encountered working with FOX on such a large and diverse vertical video slate?
Sasha Tkachenko, Head of Studio, My Drama: When working with studios, one of the most important factors is alignment—a shared vision, openness to experimentation, and a genuine eagerness to create great stories. FOX Entertainment has been an excellent partner in this regard, bringing deep expertise and a strong IP foundation. Together, we’ve already created standout titles such as Swapped Bodies With My Secret Crush and Her Heart Held Hostage, and we’re genuinely excited about what’s coming next.
You are also actively cooperating with companies from Ukraine. Tell us more about your relationship with Starlight Production and Megogo. What are your plans for the Ukrainian market?
Sasha Tkachenko: We also collaborate with a major Ukrainian production company, AMO Pictures. HOLYWATER TECH is a global company that has Ukrainian roots, so working with partners from Ukraine feels natural and comfortable for us. Ukrainian production companies offer a very high level of content production at a relatively accessible cost.
With Starlight, we produced our first reality project and are currently exploring ways to continue collaborating going forward. With Megogo, our relationship is that of a licensing partnership through which they distribute our content.
Bogdan Nesvit, CEO and Co-Founder of HOLYWATER
Are you also looking for partners coming from CEE? Have you seen interest in your content from players in the region?
Sasha Tkachenko: We are a global company, and our content is available across the CEE region. When it comes to interest and audience size, this is historically linked to a country’s population. Within the CEE market, Poland stands out as a historically large market in terms of both content production and consumption. We also collaborate with production companies across the region.
The recently announced multiyear deal with Dhar Mann Studios is set to deliver an initial slate of 40 narrative driven vertical titles for My Drama while Dhar Mann retains ownership and creative control. What made this collaboration attractive for HOLYWATER TECH, and how does it fit into your global content strategy?
Bogdan Nesvit: At HOLYWATER TECH, our mission is to unlock creators’ potential and help them reach global audiences through new, mobile-first storytelling formats. That’s exactly why the collaboration with Dhar Mann Studios was such a natural fit. Dhar Mann is one of the most influential digital storytellers today, recognized by Forbes as the 2 Top Creator in 2024 and 2025 and named to the inaugural TIME100 Creators list in 2025.
This partnership also builds on the strategic foundation we established earlier with FOX Entertainment. That relationship is already attracting top-tier studios and creators like Dhar Mann, who benefit from FOX’s deep content expertise, access to talent, and production resources, combined with HOLYWATER TECH’s data, audience insights, IP incubation, and distribution engine.
More broadly, this signals a key shift in the market: leading creators are entering vertical storytelling and bringing their loyal audiences with them. That’s a major step toward turning what was once a niche format into mainstream entertainment in the U.S., which has been our goal from the start. Like the FOX partnership and our recent investment round, this deal marks an important milestone for the vertical video industry outside of China.
Dhar Mann’s audience spans more than 160 million followers globally. How are you approaching the creative and business balance between his style of storytelling and HOLYWATER TECH’s existing vertical narrative formats?
Bogdan Nesvit: It’s very important for us to celebrate each creator’s artistic style, and that’s especially true when working with someone like Dhar Mann, whose storytelling voice resonates with more than 160 million followers worldwide.
At the same time, HOLYWATER TECH acts as a technology and distribution partner, providing a system that allows stories to be tested early and quickly distributed to global audiences in a vertical, mobile-first format. We also share our vertical playbook and deep user insights to help creators understand what scales within our ecosystem and beyond.
Combined with Dhar Mann’s creative strengths and the production expertise supported by FOX, this creates a strong synergy—one that allows his stories to evolve further while reaching new audiences through vertical storytelling.
HOLYWATER TECH also recently closed a $22 million funding round led by Horizon Capital with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and Wheelhouse, described as one of the largest in the vertical video/microdrama sector outside Asia. What specific growth initiatives will this funding enable?
Anatolii Kasianov: HOLYWATER TECH plans to deploy the newly raised $22 million with a strong focus on platform leverage rather than brute-force scaling. The investment is aimed at strengthening the systems that allow the company to operate faster, smarter, and at greater scale. Specifically:
1/ Technology & IP discovery: expanding recommendation systems, analytics, and AI-driven IP discovery to shorten the feedback loop between audience demand and content creation.
2/ AI-native production pipelines: scaling AI-assisted production across vertical video, books, AI-generated series, and new formats such as comics and anime, enabling the release of 120–200 series per year without sacrificing quality.
3/ Market expansion & partnerships: deepening partnerships—especially in the U.S.—with studios, creators, and premium partners to establish vertical series as a mainstream entertainment format.
Anatolii Kasianov, CEO and Co-Founder of HOLYWATER
Part of the investment strategy is to scale AI driven content tools and expand into formats like AI comics and anime alongside vertical video. How do you see the role of AI shaping the future of storytelling at HOLYWATER TECH?
Anatolii Kasianov: To answer this question, I’d like to explain how AI is incorporated now, and what other plans we have for it in the future.
HOLYWATER TECH is an AI-first entertainment company that pairs creators’ imagination with AI efficiency to bring stories to life and deliver them to global audiences. AI is deeply embedded in our workflows to automate repetitive processes, speed up iteration, and improve scale, while all core creative decisions remain led by human creators.
Today, HOLYWATER TECH’s ecosystem reaches 85 million users and includes My Passion (digital publishing and IP discovery), My Muse (AI-generated video storytelling), and My Drama (live-action vertical streaming). Together, they form a fluid, multi-format content pipeline.
AI delivers the most immediate impact in adaptation—moving stories from books to scripts to video—and in production and post-production, where data, automation, and tooling allow us to create content up to 10× faster and at a fraction of traditional costs. On My Drama, AI is primarily used in post-production and localization to efficiently scale content across markets. On My Passion, writers use AI to streamline research, planning, and drafting, while maintaining full creative control. My Muse sits at the center of experimentation, where AI enables rapid visual iteration, storyboarding, and format testing.
Overall, AI acts as a force multiplier across the pipeline—enhancing speed, scale, and learning—while creativity, narrative direction, and taste remain human-driven, as it should be.
With strong engagement metrics and award recognition for My Drama, how do you measure success in the vertical video format versus traditional long form television or streaming content?
Sasha Tkachenko: We measure success in vertical video differently than in traditional long-form TV or streaming, because the viewer behavior and consumption context is diverse. In vertical storytelling, success starts with engagement density — how quickly a story hooks viewers, how consistently they return episode after episode, and how deeply they progress through a series in short sessions.
Beyond raw views, we focus on metrics like completion rates, episodes watched per user, retention across story arcs, and speed to validation — how fast a concept proves demand. That allows us to iterate and scale stories much earlier than in long-form production cycles.
At the same time, awards and critical recognition matter because they signal that vertical series can deliver not just engagement, but quality storytelling. Ultimately, we don’t see vertical and long-form as competing formats — they serve different moments and audiences. Our goal is to build vertical storytelling as a mainstream format with its own success benchmarks, optimized for mobile-first consumption.
