iWorld
Vistas Media Capital acquires majority stake in Paperboat Design Studios
Mumbai: Singapore-based media and entertainment-related investments company Vistas Media Capital (VMC) on Wednesday announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Paperboat Design Studios, an animation and design company based out of India, for an undisclosed amount. The studio, with more than 250 full-time employees across offices in Mumbai and Hyderabad, will help stride VMC’s growing media ecosystem that spans across film and video content, NFT, gaming and metaverse, said the statement.
The move reflects VMC’s ongoing commitment to expand its value chain of media, entertainment, and related technologies. This deal comes at the heels of a newly announced film project between Golden Ratio Films (GRF) – a wholly-owned subsidiary of VMC and US-based production company Appian Way Productions last month.
“Paperboat is a team of passionate, talented, and creative people, with a proven track record in animation and VFX. We welcome them to the Vistas eco-system and hope to have a synergistic relationship to grow the business beyond India across content, gaming, and metaverse,” stated Vistas Media Capital group CEO Abhayanand Singh.
Established over a decade ago, Paperboat Design Studios has created animation and design work and produced the live-action films for a diverse clientele. The studio also offers VFX and CGI services through its majorly owned subsidiary Occult Studios, based out of Mumbai. Some of the major clients of Paperboat and Occult include Disney India, Discovery Kids, McCann, World Bank, Coca Cola, Cadburys, Nestle, Burger King, and Reebok.
“We are extremely excited about being a part of Vistas Media Capital as it gives us an opportunity to explore exponential growth across genres and markets,” said Paperboat Design Studios CEO and co-founder Soumitra Ranade. “The capital infused will be used to expand the team, create original IPs, and cross synergise other verticals with them. The business and its offerings are at an inflection point of a massive explosion in the post COVID world, across digital and traditional media.”
Paperboat has worked on several popular television series including “Bandbudh Aur Budbak” and “Fukrey Boyzz.” The studio also worked on the 2D animated feature film “Bombay Rose,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was the first Indian animation to open for the Venice Film Critics’ Week.
Currently, Paperboat is working on two international animation projects – “Bhrigu And The Palace of Mirrors,” based on the book with the same name, and “Kabuliwala,” based on the classic short story by Nobel prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
