Bengaluru-based character entertainment company Graphic India Pvt. Ltd has raised $5 million (Rs 32 crore) to go ahead on its next phase of growth with more original superhero characters, character entertainment franchises and live-action production.
The new round was led by investors at Liquid Comics LLC, Graphic India’s US-based parent, while a group of global media and investment leaders participated in the round.
Those who took part in the round include Start Media LLC, Backflip Studios co-founder Julian Farrior, TV Mohandas Pai’s 3One4 Capital and Zodius Capital founder Neeraj Bhargava.
The company produces digital comics and animation with character franchises, and is looking to tap into the 600-million youth population under the age of 25, as well as the 850 million-strong mobile phone user base in India.
With the fresh capital infusion, the company will launch new characters for both domestic and international markets and expand its offerings beyond digital comics and animation. It is working on original mobile content, live-action TV and films, besides virtual and augmented reality-based properties.
“There is an increasing number of digital and broadcasting platforms emerging in India that are looking for differentiated content. We think we are perfectly positioned to create content that caters to pop-culture fans across both animation and other digital content offerings,” said Sharad Devarajan, co-founder and CEO, Graphic India. “We are also moving into live action production and planning to expand our business lines to areas such as VR and AR,” he added.
“We have already created a leadership position in the character entertainment space in the country. This investment will help us expand that dominance further and develop more properties, more co-productions and content, besides scaling up our digital initiatives for incubation of content,” said Devarajan, adding that the company will also expand its team.
“We look at digital as an area where we can create tremendous amount of digital comics and other content that can really engage with the fans. We hope to take such engaging content from there to larger animation shows, live action shows and other products,” he added.
The company was launched in 2012 by media entrepreneurs Devarajan, Gotham Chopra, the son of US-based alternative therapy practitioner and speaker Deepak Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman.
