The first prompt appears after the cliffhanger. A character from a vertical series, paused mid-confrontation, asks you what should happen next. You type a suggestion, and the story continues, the character’s dialogue and expression shifting in response. It’s a small, sticky moment of agency, a feeling of authorship grafted onto consumption. This is the surface where Holywater Tech is placing its bet, turning its vertical video platform My Drama into a testing ground for interactive, AI-powered companions [TechCrunch, 2024]. The move is a direct challenge to Character.AI, but for Holywater, it’s less about standalone chat and more about deepening the narrative hooks across its entire transmedia stack.
Founded in Kyiv in 2020, Holywater describes itself as an “AI-first entertainment network” [HOLYWATER TECH]. Its ecosystem is a closed loop of narrative formats. Stories begin as text on My Passion, its digital book platform, where the company claims it is the number one independent publishing player among American and European companies [Businesswire, 2026]. Popular titles are then adapted into vertical microdramas for its My Drama app, which it also calls the top vertical streaming service in the same competitive set [Businesswire, 2026]. My Muse, launched in 2025, uses AI to generate new series and audiobooks from prompts [HOLYWATER TECH, Dec 2024]. The company’s stated goal is for 90% of its content to be AI-generated within two years [Forbes, 2025]. It’s a factory, but one designed for a specific, mobile-native audience that scrolls through stories as much as it reads them.
The Transmedia Wedge
Holywater’s moat isn’t a single app, but the frictionless pipeline between them. A user might discover a romance novel on My Passion, watch its dramatized version on My Drama, and then use My Muse to spin up a personalized audio sequel. The AI companions, introduced in 2024, are the latest layer meant to glue users to this universe. By making characters interactive, Holywater aims to transform passive viewers into engaged participants, increasing session time and emotional investment. The company reports its content platforms reach over 85 million users across more than 190 countries [Businesswire, 2026], [Forbes Technology Council, 2026]. Its traction metrics, while self-reported, paint a picture of scale: 100 million lifetime downloads, 100 million hours of consumed content, and 10 billion organic views [HOLYWATER TECH].
A Hollywood 2.0 Partnership
The most significant external validation of Holywater’s model came in late 2025, when FOX Entertainment took a strategic stake in the company. The partnership commits FOX to producing more than 200 vertical video titles for the My Drama platform over the next two years [Variety, 2026], [Deadline, 2025]. This is not just a content deal; it’s a bridge between traditional Hollywood narrative craft and Holywater’s AI-driven, mobile-first distribution. The collaboration also yielded “Wild Silence,” starring Maksim Chmerkovskiy, billed as the first TV celebrity to lead a vertical series [HOLYWATER TECH]. For Holywater, the FOX deal provides a steady stream of professionally produced content to mix with its AI-generated fare, lending credibility and variety to its catalog.
The Team and the Traction
Holywater is led by co-CEOs Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, who founded the company in Ukraine. Nesvit, based in Los Angeles, studied at University College London [LinkedIn, 2026]. Kasianov, the CTO, was a university dropout at 24 when he co-founded the company [Forbes Technology Council]. To bolster its technical capabilities, Holywater acquired the AI studio Jeynix in 2025 [dev.ua, 2026]. The company’s financial momentum appears strong. It expects total revenue to exceed $90 million for 2024, with roughly a quarter generated by the My Drama platform [Kyiv Post, 2026]. In January 2026, Horizon Capital led a $22 million Series A round, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and Wheelhouse, bringing Holywater’s total disclosed funding to approximately $22 million [Seedtable], [Crunchbase, 2026].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| My Drama & My Passion Downloads | 5 M+ |
| Platform Users | 85 M+ |
| Countries Reached | 190 + |
| Expected 2024 Revenue | 90 M USD |
The Competitive Landscape
Holywater operates in a crowded and fast-evolving space. Its direct competitors in the vertical microdrama arena include ReelShort, DramaBox, and GoodShort. These apps also traffic in short, addictive episodes, but Holywater differentiates through its integrated ecosystem and aggressive AI integration. The push into AI companions also places it in a broader competitive set with pure-play conversational AI platforms. The company’s success hinges on executing a complex, multi-app strategy where others focus on a single format.
- Content quality risk. As AI generates more of the catalog, maintaining narrative coherence and emotional depth becomes a technical and creative challenge. The FOX partnership mitigates this by supplying human-crafted stories.
- Monetization depth. While revenue is reportedly high, the primary model appears ad-supported. The next test is whether interactive features like AI companions can drive higher-value subscriptions or in-app purchases.
- Platform dependency. As a mobile-first company, Holywater is subject to the whims of app store policies and algorithm changes. Its global reach, however, diversifies this risk across multiple regional markets.
The Next Twelve Months
The coming year will test Holywater’s thesis of an AI-entertainment network. Key milestones will be the rollout of the FOX-produced titles, the user engagement metrics for its AI companions, and the progress toward its 90% AI-generated content goal. Another funding round is plausible as it scales its content production and technology teams. The core question Holywater is implicitly answering is not whether AI can create stories, but whether an algorithm can learn to sustain a user’s attention across multiple formats, turning a single curiosity into a lasting habit. The prompt is there, waiting for a reply.
Sources
- [TechCrunch, 2024] My Drama launched AI companions to take on Character.AI | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [HOLYWATER TECH] Company homepage and product descriptions | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [Businesswire, 2026] Holywater platform reach and ranking claims | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [Forbes, 2025] Holywater's AI content generation goal | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [HOLYWATER TECH, Dec 2024] Launch of My Muse AI generator | https://www.holywater.tech/blog/ukrainian-company-holywater-has-launched-my-muse----an-ai-powered-generator-of-series-and-audiobooks-how-does-it-work-and-why-do-we-need-it-zapitati-v-chatgpt
- [Forbes Technology Council, 2026] User reach and founder background | https://councils.forbes.com/profile/Anatolii-Kasianov-Co-Founder-co-CEO-HOLYWATER-TECH/1f1237dd-372d-47da-bf62-2bc72983c6e0
- [Variety, 2026] FOX Entertainment partnership details | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [Deadline, 2025] FOX production commitment | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [HOLYWATER TECH] Wild Silence series with Maksim Chmerkovskiy | https://www.holywater.tech/
- [LinkedIn, 2026] Bogdan Nesvit background | https://www.linkedin.com/company/holywater-tech/
- [dev.ua, 2026] Acquisition of AI studio Jeynix | https://dev.ua/news/holywater-tech
- [Kyiv Post, 2026] Revenue expectations for 2024 | https://www.kyivpost.com/
- [Seedtable] $22 million in total funding | https://www.seedtable.com/
- [Crunchbase, 2026] Horizon Capital-led Series A round | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/holywater