FAST FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

Content, culture, interactivity and COMMERCE are all coming together to brew the perfect storm propelling MEDIA into a new direction in India, birthing a slew of MEDIATECH companies that are attractive to consumers and investors alike

- Noor Fathima Warsia

In July 2021, Sachin Tendulkar invested $2 million in JetSynthesys. In the same month, WinZO secured $6 million — both are tech-led entertainment companies. Gumlet, a SaaS firm that automates the media delivery infrastructure, received a $1.6 million investment from Surge, while ShareChat’s Moj, Prime Minister’s AatmaNirbhar App Challenge winner Koo, and Daily Hunt’s Josh, all short-form video players launched in 2020, attracted some of the highest investment monies of the year.

Shuttered cinemas, production halts, lockdowns and overall budget cuts cast a gloom cloud over the Indian media but the sector attracted $877.8 million across 85 funding deals last year nonetheless, compared to $561.27 million in 2019. The underlying factor among these deals was that all these companies had one or more of the following at their core — content, video and mobile-first, culturally diverse, interactive, social commerce. This mix is what defines mediatech in today’s world order.

While FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows in India’s information and broadcasting sector, including print media, stood at $9.5 billion between April 2000 and March 2021, the highlight trend last year was investors’ money going to the mediatech pie. All these indicators point to the paradigm shift in the sector where new titans are flexing their muscles.

The Big Game