Saregama Pocket Aces : Indian music giant Saregama acquires 51.82% stake in new-age digital entertainment startup Pocket Aces for $40 million. In addition to buying the stake for 174 kroner ($21 million), Saregama will invest another 15 kroner ($1.8 million) in the company.
Over the next 18 months, the music giant plans to buy a 92.61% stake in Pocket Aces. The remaining 40.79% of the acquisition would be based on the higher of the adjusted equity value of Saregama’s properties or the enterprise value of Pocket Aces.
Founded in 2013 by Aditi Shrivastava, Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita, Pocket Aces is the digital content creator and publisher behind popular channels FilterCopy, Nutshell and Gobble. The company focuses on youth and its IP catalogue has more than 3,000 pieces of content in different formats such as web series, sketches, music videos and reels. Its talent management arm – Clout tracks over 100 digital influencers, while its long-standing studio Dice Media produces youth web series available on OTT platforms like Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon.
The company also owned gaming and sports app Loco, which was spun off in 2021.
The startup site reportedly has 8.9 million YouTube subscribers and the Loco app has 8.5 million users.
According to Saregama’s stock market announcement, Pocket Aces’ net turnover increased by 34% to SEK 104 in 23 financial years.
Earlier this year, the startup laid off about 50,200 employees from its content, production and post-production teams.
According to the exchange announcements, the acquisition of Pocket Aces will allow Saregama to “add a whole new dimension to the IP (intellectual property) and distribution network of more than 95 million followers, which Saregama will use to further popularize its music library.” Saregama, which is listed on the BSE and NSE, further claimed that the acquisition will create synergies between industries such as artist and influencer management and long-form video.
