Bangalore: Graphic India announced today it raised a new financing round of US$5 Million, to further its mission of creating original Indian superheroes and character entertainment franchises.
The Company will aggressively begin launching its characters into international markets as well as expand beyond digital comics and animation, intooriginal mobile content, live-action TV/Film andVR/AR.
Graphic India was founded by Sharad Devarajan and Liquid Comics with lead investors including, CA Media, the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group and NYC investment group, Start Media LLC.
The Company has already created content with leading icons from East and West, including Stan Lee, Amitabh Bachchan, Grant Morrison, S.S. Rajamouli, ArkaMediaworks and many more.
The new financing round was led by investors at Liquid Comics with a group of global media and investment leaders participating, including Start Media LLC; Julian Farrior, Co-Founder of Backflip Studios; Mohandas Pai’s3One4 Capital; NeerajBhargava, Founder of Zodius Capital; and others.
“In today’s media landscape, if content is King, then globally appealing multi-platform content is God. Our mission at Graphic India is to create characters and stories that are uniquely Indian, but entertainingand inspiring to audiences around the world,” commented Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder & CEO of Graphic India. “India has the world’s largest youth population and its time it shared an equivalent portion of the annual multi-billion-dollarcharacter entertainment industry. We believe the next JK Rowling, Steven Spielberg, Miyazaki or Stan Lee is here in this country, ready to transform the world with their stories.”
Rajesh Kamat, one of Graphic India’s Founding Board Members who represents, CA Media, added “As the Indian market adds numerous distribution platforms across traditional linear broadcasters and new digital offerings, Graphic India’s groundbreaking quality and premium positioning in the market will offer increased opportunities for the business from these platforms who will need high quality content to differentiate and compete. As they move into live action and virtual reality, Graphic will continue to lead India’s character entertainment industry with multi-platform superhero properties.”
Start Media LLC Founder, Michael Maher added, “In almost every country in the world we have seen multi-billion dollar media companies emerge by building great content to cater to the pop-culture fan. We believe in Graphic’s mission to lead India in this character entertainment renaissance and create new stories and superheroes that will endure for generations in the country and around the world.”
Since its launch, Graphic India has been a pioneer in developing some of the country’s most groundbreaking superhero and fantasy characters and shows including Chakra The Invincible, Astra Force, Baahubali: The Lost Legends and18 Days: The Mahabharata,
In addition, Graphic has created one of the largest libraries of digital comics and short form content featuring stories and characters such as, Shadow Tiger; Avatarex; Reincarnation Man; Mighty Yeti; Devi; The Sadhu; Ramayan 3392AD; Mistry PI; Dragonfly & The
