Pocket Aces raises Rs 100 crore in latest round of funding

Pocket Aces, India's leading digital entertainment company, today announced that it has secured Rs 100 crores from Sequoia India, DSP Group, 3one4 Capital, and other prominent investors, to close its fresh round of fundraising.

Founded with a mission to solve boredom, Pocket Aces has pioneered the multi-brand approach to content creation and distribution for mobile entertainment. Since its last fundraise in 2016, the Company has scaled viewership by 25x and monetization by 15x. Today, its socially distributed channels, FilterCopy (short videos), Gobble (food and lifestyle videos), Dice Media (long-form videos), clock ~500 million monthly video views, making it the most-viewed network on the Indian internet.

Last year, the Company disrupted the interactive entertainment space in India by launching Loco, India’s first live and interactive esports app, which has over 15 million registered users, with active users spending over 30 minutes daily on the app. The Company has grown its team strength to 145 with offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi.

Pocket Aces will utilize the fresh capital to invest in content, technology, and talent. The Company will multiply its social distribution by starting three new content channels in the next twelve months. It aims to hit a run-rate of 1 billion monthly video views on original content by 2020, becoming the first Indian company to do so. Pocket Aces, which has created some of the most popular long-form shows in India such as “Little Things”, “What The Folks”, and “Adulting”, will build capability to create as many as 30 long-form shows a year. Pocket Aces will also continue to invest in Loco, as it creates a robust esports and interactive entertainment platform for India, with an aim to hit 50 million users in the next two years.

Lastly, the Company will bolster its senior leadership team and invest in training and culture development as it embarks on its next stage of growth.

Ashwin Suresh, Anirudh Pandita, and Aditi Shrivastava, co-founders of Pocket Aces, said, “This investment is a recognition of our leadership in the sector and an acknowledgement of the large potential of the digital entertainment market. With the massive penetration of mobile internet in India and a large consumer base hungry for local content, we believe that there has never been a better time to build a large content business here. We are excited to create new entertainment options for a new India!”

Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said, “Pocket Aces has exceeded expectations in creating a high-quality mix of mobile-friendly, episodic and interactive content offerings. They are building a truly impactful business in India’s exploding digital entertainment industry and Sequoia India is thrilled to continue supporting Ashwin, Anirudh, Aditi, and the entire team.”

Pranav Pai, Managing Partner at 3one4 Capital, added "The Pocket Aces team has used their deep experience and grounded empathy for their audience's consumption behaviour and tastes, to build amongst the largest and most viewed content portfolios in the country. With data-driven continuous feedback loops to help rigorously improve their production and narrative quality, their pioneering multi-format and cross-platform approach to video has engaged the widest segments of the mobile-first demographic. We are excited to continue working with them to scale the evolution of content consumption in India."