iWorld
Pocket Aces raises $14.7 mn fresh funds
MUMBAI: Digital studio Pocket Aces has raised $14.7 million from Sequoia Capital, DSP Group, 3one4 Capital along with other prominent investors.
The Mumbai-based firm plans to use the fresh capital to invest in content, technology and talent. It has also plans to expand social distribution by starting three new content channels in the next 12 months. It is targeting a run-rate of 1 billion monthly video views on original content by 2020 while now its shows garner 500 million views per month.
“With massive penetration of mobile internet and a large consumer base hungry for local content, we believe there has never been a better time to build a large content business here," said Ashwin Suresh, Anirudh Pandita and Aditi Shrivastava in a joint statement.
Currently, Pocket Aces operates three socially distributed content channels: FilterCopy (short videos), Dice Media (long-form videos) and Gobble (food and lifestyle videos). It uses local advertising to monetize and currently works with brands. Moreover, the company launched its Loco app last year which has over 15 million registered users.
iWorld
Tips Music CEO Hari Nair to step down
Girish Taurani and Sushant Dalmia to jointly steer the company as the hunt for a new chief begins
MUMBAI: A leadership shuffle is under way at Tips Music. Hari Nair, the company’s chief executive, will step down on April 30 as the music label begins the search for a successor.
The company said Girish Taurani, executive director, and Sushant Dalmia, chief financial officer, will jointly oversee operations during the transition while the board identifies a permanent replacement.
Nair joined Tips Music in 2023 and set about reshaping the veteran music label into a more digital, data-led enterprise. During his tenure, the company secured licensing and partnership deals with global platforms including Sony Music Publishing and TikTok, while renewing agreements with Warner Music Group.
Drawing on earlier experience in technology and entertainment, including a stint at ByteDance, Nair pushed the organisation towards a performance-driven culture. He built a brand partnerships division and introduced proprietary software systems aimed at strengthening digital distribution and data capabilities.
Kumar Taurani, chairman and managing director, credited Nair with embedding a data-led culture within the company and driving revenue growth in line with shareholder commitments.
In his resignation note, Nair said that after helping transition the label into a modern, digitally focused and process-driven organisation, the time had come to pursue his next leadership challenge.
The leadership change comes as the broader Tips Films group shows signs of financial stabilisation. In the third quarter of FY26 the company reported a net loss of Rs 2.86 crore, narrowing sharply from Rs 14.2 crore in the previous quarter. For the nine months ended December, losses stood at Rs 12.37 crore.
Yet revenue told a more volatile story. Income from operations slid to Rs 4 crore in Q3 FY26 from Rs 56 crore in the preceding quarter, taking total operating income to Rs 4.56 crore.
For a company built on a catalogue of more than 34,000 tracks and decades of Bollywood hits, the next chief will inherit both a digital engine and a volatile music market. The playlist may be familiar, but the next act at Tips Music is only just beginning.
