The fund will invest in content creators, OTT platforms, gaming and entertainment start-ups.
India-based NV Capital, a credit fund focussed on the media and entertainment sector, plans to organise virtual roadshows to tap investors across the UAE to raise a corpus of AED 246m ($67m).
Founded by former corporate bankers Nitin Menon and Vivek Menon, the fund will invest in content creators, over-the-top (OTT) platforms, gaming and entertainment start-ups, NV Capital said in a statement.
The fund recently received a nod from SEBI as Category II Alternative Investment Fund.
Given the active involvement of Indian diaspora investing across various equity and debt instruments in India, as well as exploring new alternative asset classes, NV Capital is looking forward to raising funds from high net-worth individuals (HNIs), NRI investors, family offices and financial institutions based out of UAE to participate in the growth story of this sunrise sector.
Commenting on the plans, Vivek Menon, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, NV Capital, said: “It is a proud moment for us to launch India’s first credit fund in Media & Entertainment industry which is on the cusp of exponential growth. Given the rise of UAE as a preferred destination for global FPIs, it is eminent for the country to become the gateway of new-age sectoral funding to countries like India. At the same time, owing to cultural similarities, a large expat population of Indian origin and sustained tie-ups with Indian media and entertainment industry, UAE remains a key market for garnering funds for pour pioneering offering.”
The value of the content market has been growing exponentially in recent years, with close to 1500 movies being released every year, combined with the rapid rise of multiple OTT monetisation platforms which showcased 180+ web series and 80+ direct to OTT film launches in Hindi language alone since last year, the value of content has been growing exponentially, the company said. This trend highlights the scope and enormous opportunity in Entertainment Financing where content creators are in constant dearth of capital to scale up.
In addition, digital media & gaming two subsegments are also growing, with online gaming alone expected to grow at a CAGR of over 25%. NV Capital is set to leverage the absence of institutional credit in the sector and to provide financing for these sunrise verticals.
Nitin Menon, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, NV Capital, added: “The last 10-15 years has witnessed meteoric growth in this Alternative Asset Class with the support of ancillary revenue monetisation platforms like broadcasting, music amongst others, and now the recent OTT phenomenon. The investment in programming by media houses in OTT more than doubled from USD 260m in 2017 to USD 700m in 2020. Further, with the recent Amazon – MGM and the Warner – Discovery deal, the war for content manufacturing is getting bigger globally and India would be a recipient of these content spends as the next big market.”
The key sponsor of NV Capital is Jayantilal Gada, the Chairman and Managing Director of Pen Studios, an industry veteran with over 35 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry.
Pen is an integrated studio with a prominent presence in Indian film production, distribution, movie aggregation, broadcasting, digital media, visual effects and animation.
