iWorld
Toonsutra emerges as a Webtoon app, expanding with global publishers
Mumbai: Toonsutra, a homegrown webtoon comic app, announced today that in just a few months it has firmly established itself as the #1 comic app in India in both the Apple and Android stores. A position it has maintained for over two months with over a million downloads of the app already.
Toonsutra’s mission is to bring together a community of passionate fandom and pop culture, catering to the largest youth market in the world – India’s 700 million+ mobile youth market. It is the only premium webtoon comics app in the region dedicated to catering to Indian audiences with Hindi, Tamil and Telegu language content offerings.
The company has already locked up partnership deals with some of the biggest global publishers and creators to bring over 550 titles and 250,000 episodes of content into local Indian languages – the largest offering of premium, high-quality, webtoon comic content ever assembled for this market, in easy-to-read vertical scroll format optimized for mobile.
As the excitement for the global webtoon market continues to grow with the US$2.7 Billion IPO yesterday by Naver’s Webtoon Entertainment, the medium and fandom around these new storytelling comic platforms is finding new audiences and territories. The global webtoon market is projected to reach a staggering $60 Billion by 2030, making it one of the highest-growing new categories for media and content.
Toonsutra is founded by veteran media entrepreneurs, Sharad Devarajan who is the company’s executive chairman, and Vishal Anand, Toonsutra’s CEO.
Devarajan is also the founder/CEO of the leading Indian character entertainment company, Graphic India and brings over 25 years of comic and fandom experience, having created over 200 episodes of animation and 300 comics. He created Spider-Man India with Marvel; created and produced the #1 hit show, Baahubali: Crown of Blood, with SS Rajamouli; created and produced The Legend of Hanuman series with Disney+Hotstar which remains the #1 animated project in Indian history.
Anand is a serial digital media entrepreneur and was formerly CPO of Dailyhunt where he was part of the core initial team managing their product and tech teams to scale the business into one of India’s most successful media platforms (currently with over 300M users). Anand was also part of the product leadership team at Amazon Web Services.
“Toonsutra is not just an app, it’s a fandom community and a pop-culture movement. We’re bridging the gap between global storytelling and local audiences, creating a new language of entertainment that resonates with India’s digital-first generation. Our rapid growth shows that Indian audiences are hungry for the highest-quality, premium webtoon comic stories made available in their languages and easily snackable mobile short episodes” commented Toonsutra co-founder & chairman Sharad Devarajan.
“The initial success we are seeing for Toonsutra underscores a fundamental shift in content consumption patterns across the Indian youth. We’re not just riding the wave of digital transformation; we’re actively shaping it by combining cutting-edge technology with compelling storytelling. At Toonsutra we are creating an ecosystem where the biggest global creators and publishers can thrive by reaching entirely new regional language audiences, and Indian readers can discover new worlds with every scroll. Our mission goes beyond entertainment – we’re fostering a new era of creativity, community and creative expression in India,” added Toonsutra co-founder & CEO, Vishal Anand.
Toonsutra has become a trusted source by global partners for bringing their top content to Indian audiences with the highest quality webtoon formatting and translation, ensuring that Indian language audiences can experience the very best of the world’s comic storytelling. International partnerships include Valiant Comics, Webtoon Factory, Kenaz, Archie Comics, and Boom! Studios, Top Cow Productions, Liquid Comics, and numerous others.
In addition to award-winning and bestselling comics from global creators, Toonsutra also has exclusive webtoon comics available based on some of the biggest Indian franchises, including the film sensation, Baahubali; and the hit streaming series, The Legend of Hanuman, and hundreds of Indian episodes from leading Indian comic publisher Graphic India.
Toonsutra is also backed by a leading group of investors including the Sony Innovation Fund; Maiora Capital, Kun Gao (co-founder, Crunchyroll); Jeremy Liew (partner, Lightspeed); Kevin Lin (co-founder, Twitch); Patrick Lee (co-founder, Rotten Tomatoes); Holly Lui (co-founder, Kabam); Benjamin Grubbs (co-founder, CreatorPlus); Steve Chung (fmr. CEO of Americas, CJENM); and others.
To learn more about Toonsutra and its exciting features, visit www.toonsutra.com
The Toonsutra app is free to download on Android and iOS devices.
iWorld
OpenAI hits back at Elon Musk’s lawsuit ahead of trial
Company calls claims “baseless” and accuses Musk of trying to disrupt a rival.
MUMBAI: When the stakes are measured in billions and egos are involved, even Silicon Valley titans can turn a courtroom into a battlefield. OpenAI has issued a sharp public response to Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit, accusing the billionaire of filing the case to harass a competitor rather than address genuine concerns. In a strongly worded statement shared on its official X account, OpenAI described Musk’s allegations as “baseless” and suggested the lawsuit is an attempt to disrupt the company as the case heads toward trial later this month in Oakland, California.
The response comes after Musk’s legal team recently amended the complaint, proposing that any damages potentially exceeding $150 billion should go to OpenAI’s nonprofit entity rather than to Musk personally. OpenAI questioned the timing and motive behind this change, calling it a late-stage attempt to “pretend to change his tune” on the nonprofit structure.
The company further labelled the lawsuit a “harassment campaign”, arguing that Musk’s actions are driven by personal rivalry, ego, and a desire for greater control and financial upside.
At the heart of the dispute is Musk’s claim that OpenAI has abandoned its original nonprofit mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. A co-founder who left in 2018, Musk is seeking governance changes, including the removal of CEO Sam Altman from the nonprofit board, and the return of certain financial gains linked to Altman and President Greg Brockman.
OpenAI has firmly rejected these allegations, maintaining that its current hybrid structure, a public-benefit corporation overseen by a nonprofit parent remains true to its long-term goals. The company has also previously accused Musk of anti-competitive behaviour aimed at weakening its leadership.
As the case prepares for a jury trial, this public exchange highlights the deepening rift between two of the most influential figures in the AI revolution and raises broader questions about governance, mission, and power in the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence.
In the high-stakes game of AI, it seems the real drama isn’t just inside the models, it’s playing out in courtrooms too.
