Hyderabad, 20 July 2018: Anthill Ventures, an investment and speed-scaling platform for early growth stage startups, in partnership with Suresh Productions, one of the largest Indian film production anddistribution companies, today announced that it has shortlisted six startups for Anthill Studio. Anthill Studio is a market access programme focused on accelerating business growth of technology startups in Media & Entertainment, powered by Anthill Ventures & Suresh Productions. The call for applications was launched in February this year. The three-month programme is designed to help startups in media and entertainment by providing them with support and mentorship. Anthill Studio will help the selected startups raise investments, increase their customer base and generate more revenues. A cohort of six startups that brings in exciting solutions for the media and entertainment industry have been selected out of over 150 applications received from across the world. Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures said, “We have been tracking the growth of emerging technologies in the media and entertainment industry that have huge potential to disrupt this space globally. We are excited to work with these startups – ComicFlix, NewsPlus, Recosense, Saranyu, Scapic and Woodcutter. We will scale them with speed to the global markets as they will work on real use cases and deploy their products in real client engagements through our tailoredaccelerator programme.” Anthill Studio is focused on scouting startups in the verticals of filmed entertainment, television, gaming and digital media. The six selected startups have the potential to enhance the media and entertainment innovation ecosystem. The entrepreneurs have developed solutions using key technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR / VR), Visual Effects (VFX), Cloud
Rendering, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data.
Rana Daggubati, Indian Actor, Producer and Investor at Suresh Productions said, “We have always been looking at more entertaining ways of telling stories. Media like VFX that have amplified the way of storytelling has always interested us. The addition of recent technologies like AR/VR in the media & entertainment industry will help in elevating the level of entertainment. Anthill Studio is a bridge between the entertainment and technology industries. We look forward to accelerate the selected technology companies for the programme with direct market access and live projects”.
The cohort of the latest generation of media and entertainment startups will:
- Benefit from smart capital up to $1 million through Anthill Venture Fund and investor ecosystem.
- Have access to diverse customer network through partnerships with corporates, content producers, brands, distribution channels and studio houses.
- Have the opportunity to work and scale up under the aegis of Prasad Vanga and Rana Daggubati.
Startups selected through this programme will work with subject matter experts, mentors and coaches from both Anthill Ventures and Suresh Productions, to collaborate with
and enhance their solutions. Selected from 150 applications, 35 startups presented to a jury comprising subject matter experts Suresh productions, Anthill Ventures and external industry members for the shortlisting process. The participants were reviewed based on the quality of technology solution, product/solution readiness and growth potential.
The six chosen startups include:
COMICFLIX: ComicFlix is a technology platform that converts movies and videos to stunning graphic novels at a scale that can be printed or distributed digitally. Writing a graphic novel can take up to a year but by using their proprietary technology one can bring this down to a few days.
They provide content owners with a new way to monetise their existing content, increase engagement and extend the reach of their content.
o Brings in value for kids’ content owners, content owners, movie studios, streaming companies and brand agencies.
RecoSense: RecoSense is an AI-driven venture that uses data science stack to offer user personalisation, content recommendations and analytics aimed at boosting consumption, conversion & retention. They provide users with personalised content, a powerful search engine that understands user intent and produces results, personalised ads and works for content across multiple languages.
o Brings in value for streaming platforms, publisher networks, brands and retail.
Woodcutter Media Technologies: Woodcutter leverages big data, machine learning and analytics to help filmmakers understand:
- how their audiences see their projects
- where they stand compared to similar films
- help them with their promotion strategies.
They provide actionable insights with respect to content design and promotion strategy by analysing the buzz and the sentiment about a movie before its release.
o Brings in value for production houses and movie promotion companies.
NewPlus: NewsPlus brings you breaking news, local stories and personalised feeds on the topics you follow. You can follow friends and share stories with them directly. Curate your favourite stories and videos into magazines for your followers to see. NewsPlus is the most comprehensive news app available in multiple languages.
o Brings in value for news readers, telcos (telecommunication companies), OEMs, large enterprises and publishers.
Saranyu: Saranyu develops and delivers Over-the-top (OTT) TV/Video, digital news, enterprise video products and solutions for content providers, aggregators, service providers (Telco/OTT) and enterprises. They can create an end-to-end OTT platform (like Netflix, Hotstar) for anyone who has a large content library in around six weeks’ time.
o Brings in value for production houses, content aggregators, news publishers, magazines, broadcasters, TV channels, online education ISPs (Internet service providers), Telco / Telco service providers
