Digital media startup for Indian millennials raises $3 million led by Sequoia

Entertainment has changed over the years. Performers at Cirque du Soleil’s show ‘Quidam’. Photo credit: ververidis / 123RF.

Mumbai-based Pocket Aces, a digital entertainment company aimed at the Indian millennial, just raised a cool US$3 million in fresh funding, led by VC bigwig Sequoia Capital.

Pocket Aces was founded by Ashwin Suresh, Anirudh Pandita, and Aditi Shrivastava in December 2013. Ashwin and Anirudh were roomies while studying electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They launched the digital media startup to ride the social media wave, as media creation and consumption patterns change fast with the rise of the smartphone.

“The capital raised will be used to create exceptional content, bolster our technology base, and add world-class talent to our team,” Anirudh said.

“The plan is to create over 500 short-form live-action and food videos and at least 6 long-form properties over the next year. We will push boundaries by experimenting with unique content-based commerce models as well as new distribution mediums like livestreaming and messaging.”

We look up to companies like Pixar as benchmarks for innovation

Pocket Aces says it has created more than 1,000 original content pieces across text and video platforms and sees 2 million monthly page views. The company conceptualizes, creates, and distributes original content targeted at millennials, through its three channels: Dice Media, which works with sketches and web series, FilterCopy, which handles short-form content, and Gobble, which works for food-related clients.

“With increasing mobile internet penetration, attention minutes have moved to social media and messaging platforms. [We] look up to companies like Pixar as benchmarks for creative innovation,” Suresh said.

Pocket Aces’ revenue model is centered around native advertising by brands. The company counts Penguin Random House, FreeCharge, Tinder, and Swiggy among clients.