MAM
Sequoia Capital hires Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav as CMO
MUMBAI: She built her reputation as a solid marketer building Star India, along with her boss Uday Shankar, as chief marketing officer and president – strategy & innovation. Now the dynamic marketing professional Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav has joined Sequoia Capital as chief marketing officer for India and south east Asia.
Says Yadav: “I am honoured to join Sequoia Capital India and help daring founders build legendary companies and brands. This is a seminal point of time in the development of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and there is a massive opportunity to create global brands out of the region. I am excited to join this amazing team and partner with an incredibly talented set of founders in achieving this mission.”
Sequoia Capital has, meanwhile, announced that it has completed other hires: Shweta Rajpal Kohli as head of public policy and Ajey Gore as operating partner, technology.
Sequoia Capital managing director Shaliendra Singh put out a post on LinkedIn welcoming the new joinees. He added that Gayatri will additionally be working closely with the group’s portfolio CMOs to help them launch and grow brands.
Highlighted Singh: “The team at Sequoia Capital India feels massively privileged to welcome industry leaders like Gayatri, Ajey and Shweta to our team. Their contributions will undoubtedly benefit dozens of founders and startups across India and SEA and make a dent in the years to come.”
Sequoia India has invested at the very early stages in many startups including Citrus, Druva, Faaso's, FreeCharge, Grofers, Healthkart, India Shelter Finance, Mobikwik, Pine Labs, Practo, Prizm Payments, Scio Health and Zilingo.
Sequoia India recently closed its sixth fund, at $695 million, which will be used to double down on investments in both early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and southeast Asia.
It has worked with many founders including Amit Kumat of Prataap Snacks, Ankiti Bose of Zilingo, Ankur Jain of Bira, Byju Raveendran of Byju's, Chatri Sityodtong of One Championship, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Dhiraj Rajaram of Mu Sigma, Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks, Jaspreet Singh of Druva, Kunal Shah of Freecharge, D. Lakshmipathy of Five Star Finance, Lokvir Kapoor of Pine Labs, Nadiem Makarim of Go-Jek, Rajul Garg of GlobalLogic, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO Rooms, Shashank ND of Practo, VSS Mani of JustDial, William Tanuwijaya of Tokopedia.
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Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
