MAM
Seekho raises Rs 3.75 crore in seed round led by We Founder Circle
Mumbai: Investment platform We Founder Circle (WFC), led by a global community of founders and strategic angels, has led a seed round worth Rs 3.75 crore in an edutainment startup, Seekho. Many strategic angels have banded together to propel the start-up to new heights.
Seekho said that it aims to define an entirely new category of edutainment content by combining educational content with entertaining byte-sized videos, building a “Netflix for Learning.” Seekho plans to use the investment to expand into new languages and expand their already diverse premium content library.
The current round witnessed participation from We Founder Circle and SucSEED Innovation Fund, along with Toppr co-founder Hemanth Goteti and other executives.
IITK alumni Rohit Choudhary, Keertay Agarwal, and Yash Banwani founded the company in 2020. The startup is already backed by PointOne Capital, 3one4 Capital, First Cheque, Callapina Capital and entrepreneurs including Anupam Mittal (People Group), Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Ramakant Sharma (Livspace), Zishaan Hayath (Toppr), Dinesh Goel (Aasaanjobs), Alok Mittal (IAN), Miten Sampat (CRED), Aakrit Vaish (Haptik), Harsh Shah (Fynd) and Harpreet Singh (Cocubes).
We Founder Circle co-founder Gaurav VK Singhvi said, “At We Founder Circle, we are pleased to have invested in Seekho since they have demonstrated the will and smart ideas required to run a start-up. The start-up has the potential to revolutionise the education system and benefit society in a great way. We pledge our mentorship and support to Seekho, and we intend to cover all aspects of their development, including business strategy, product development, community building, and connecting with potential business mentors.”
Seekho founder and CEO Rohit Choudhary added, “At Seekho, we are thrilled to have WFC and SucSEED as strategic investment partners, especially at this time when we are seeing really promising early results from the launch of Seekho PLUS subscriptions. With such strategic angels on board, we intend to scale up quickly and reach one lakh paying subscribers in the next six months.”
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
