iWorld
Stride Ventures leads Rs 17 crore debt round in Pocket Aces
KOLKATA: Stride Ventures has led a Rs 17 crore debt round in digital entertainment company Pocket Aces. Stride will be a strategic partner in Pocket Aces’ growth journey with their customised offerings and deep relationships across banks and corporates.
This partnership with Pocket Aces is the twelfth investment from Stride Ventures’ maiden fund, marking its foray in the digital media and entertainment space as gaming and OTT has had a breakthrough year with industry revenues surging and subscriptions rising through the lockdown.
Stride Ventures founder and managing partner Ishpreet Gandhi said, “Pocket Aces has truly pioneered digital content in India through its data driven approach to content creation. More importantly, the company creates highly relatable content, making it appealing especially for the younger demographic. At Stride, we strive to partner with indigenous companies which have the ability to scale up rapidly by leveraging technology and we see Pocket Aces as a great addition to our portfolio.”
Pocket Aces co-founder Aditi Shrivastava added, “2020 was an unprecedented challenge for humanity and we were privileged to entertain the Indian audience during this difficult time. The lockdown accelerated adoption of digital media as the primary source of consumer entertainment , and so we innovated rapidly to ensure that we could continue to thrive and increase content output in this new normal. As a result, we saw growth in all our major business lines this year. As we go into 2021, we are more excited than ever about the size of the entertainment opportunity in India and are happy to partner with Stride Ventures on our growth journey. This debt instrument is one of the first of its kind for the sector and we think it underlines Pocket Aces’ leadership of the sector as well as the innovation focus of Stride Ventures.”
Pocket Aces will utilise the capital raised to scale the current content output and invest further in new content formats and distribution channels. In 2020, Pocket Aces released multiple shows across its channels that kept audiences gripped with stories of love, life, and the new normal. The company has worked with over 100 brands across sectors including Tinder, Hindustan Unilever, PureMe, Bacardi, Unacademy, and Mondelez, among others.
On the other hand, its game streaming and e-sports platform Loco, has hosted some of the biggest mobile gaming tournaments India has ever seen. Loco also entered into strategic partnerships with Red Bull, Fnatic, NBA 2K League, and other leading brands. The year also saw Pocket Aces launch Clout, its talent management division, which exclusively represents over 60 of the digital industry’s finest and most popular faces.
Gaming
Formula 1 and Mumbai Falcons launch India’s first official F1 sim racing championship
Nationwide competition creates pathway from virtual racing to pro motorsport
MUMBAI: Formula 1 has teamed up with Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited to launch India’s first officially sanctioned F1 sim racing competition, marking a new step in the country’s growing motorsport ecosystem.
The championship, titled F1 Sim Racing India Open 2026, will offer a structured national platform for sim racers, with participants competing on the official F1 25 across multiple stages. The competition will begin with online qualifiers, followed by city-based simulator rounds, before culminating in a national final in Mumbai this November.
Open to players across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox, registrations for the event will begin on 30 April via the Mumbai Falcons app. The format mirrors real-world racing, featuring official circuits, team liveries and competitive structures aligned with the global series.
Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan said the initiative arrives at a time when interest in the sport is surging in India, adding that a structured sim racing platform could help identify and nurture the next generation of talent.
Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited managing director Ameet Gadhoke noted that the championship aligns with the team’s long-term goal of building a strong motorsport pipeline in the country and placing Indian talent on the global stage.
The launch also reflects broader momentum in esports, especially after its recognition under India’s Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025. By bridging gaming and real-world racing, the initiative aims to offer aspiring drivers a credible entry point into professional motorsport.
With interest in Formula 1 steadily rising and conversations around its return to India gaining pace, the new championship could become a proving ground for future racing stars.
