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Tag: Ashwin Suresh

  • Loco announces global expansion backed by UAE-based investment company

    Loco announces global expansion backed by UAE-based investment company

    Mumbai: Loco has announced an investment by Redwood Tech FZCO (“Redwood”), a newly-formed, technology-focused investment company, based in the UAE. This transaction marks a significant milestone in Loco’s journey, with the new investor investing significant capital to fuel Loco’s global expansion efforts. As part of the transaction, existing investors will be provided with an exit.

    Loco has been a pioneer in the live game streaming and esports sector in India, paving the way for gaming to go from a niche hobby to a mainstream national interest. Loco has built highly engaged communities across various game categories, such as BGMI, Free Fire, Call of Duty Mobile, Clash of Clans, Grand Theft Auto (GTA), and Valorant. The platform will now be expanding to international markets that are aligned with Loco’s vision of becoming a leading global streaming platform. As part of this rollout, the company will be announcing new partnerships with major gaming companies, esports athletes, and streamers, helping it deliver the best gaming content to its users. The company has previously partnered with large publishers like Krafton, Activision, Ubisoft, and Riot Games, as well as global giants like the NBA and FIFAe, and will look forward to extending these relationships to new markets.

    This investment will enable Loco to leverage its strong technology, and community-focused platform, to enter multiple new markets within the next 12 months. The commitment from Redwood underlines its confidence in Loco’s potential to expand its service internationally, transforming the way the world experiences gaming entertainment.

    Loco founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, said “This investment is a recognition of the immense work done by our team in the past few years. Gaming is an integral part of the cultural zeitgeist globally, and we look forward to building a platform that is at the heart of this global movement. Live streaming enables authentic connection in a way that other mediums can’t match and we want to put the fan at the center of this experience.”

  • Loco launches ‘Legends’, all-new NFT platform for esports

    Loco launches ‘Legends’, all-new NFT platform for esports

    Mumbai: Live game streaming and esports platform Loco has announced the country’s latest NFT platform for esports ‘Legends,’ The decision was taken as part of its commitment to democratising gaming entertainment in the country.

    Users will be able to own and trade esports collectibles on the platform, boosting their fandom and giving them the chance to feel like esports scouts for a day. Legends paves the way for decentralisation for game developers.

    Loco has also inked exclusive collaborations with major esports tournament organisers including Villager esports and Upthrust esports to ensure that its data plan has the finest in class data flow.

    Loco has also built a proprietary data system that powers Legends. This system leverages the data generated by the large number of tournaments empowered by Loco.  

    Loco Legends launches exclusive partnerships with the most popular esports teams in India including 8bit, s0ul, Godlike, Revenant, Blind, and XO among others. These top Indian esports teams are the category dominators in popular games like BGMI, FreeFire Max, and Valorant, and provide fans with the most credible NFT experience. Loco has a 52 million-strong community of gamers.

    The first asset on Loco Legends will be NFT esports cards. This offering combines non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and free to play esports fantasy gaming. Users can purchase NFT trading cards allowing them to buy and sell cards amongst each other and also participate in free-to-play fantasy pools. By collecting, owning, and trading these limited-edition digital collectibles, Loco is designing a unique fan experience, where users can truly get closer to their heroes, build real world connections, and enhance their watching experience. The NFTs will be limited in number and unique to each owner. Loco is the first to build a large-scale consumer platform of this sort in India, that is embracing NFTs & web3.

    Founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh shared, “We are passionate about the potential of web3 to empower creators and create new fan experiences in the gaming community. Gamers are the earliest adopters of new technology and our community has shown a strong acceptance for these initiatives. We are excited about providing users an easy-to-use experience so that they can enjoy the power of web3 without dealing with the complexities that other products are often plagued with. We are also pumped about the partners we are bringing with us and the experiences that these partnerships will help us deliver to users. Our team firmly believes that this is a unique opportunity to unlock a new paradigm in gaming and this product is the first step in our roadmap.”

    The platform is currently in beta and will be made public in July 2022. As a part of this launch, the top 1,000 users that waitlist themselves on the platform will get access to free NFTs worth approximately Rs 500 each. On sharing the waitlist link with friends and family, and onboarding more users through their referrals, users will have a chance to jump the queue by 100 spots, allowing them to move higher up in the waitlist and increasing their chances of winning a free NFT. The platform is now live for audiences to access.

  • Penta Esports partners with Loco to announce pan-India esports league for colleges and universities

    Penta Esports partners with Loco to announce pan-India esports league for colleges and universities

    Mumbai: A gaming and esports company Penta Esports has announced the launch of its latest IP, the ‘Penta Collegiate League’ presented by Loco, for colleges and universities throughout India. This league’s tournaments will stream exclusively on Loco’s app and website. This league’s other partners include ‘Leverage Edu’ as a study abroad partner and ‘GOQii’ as a healthcare partner.

    With Rs 30,00,000 as an annual scholarship award, the first year of the ‘Penta Collegiate League’ will feature two esports titles — Valorant on PC and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on mobile — and will have two qualifiers each for both games. The registration for the first qualifiers has already begun and will continue until 19 June 2022. The matches of the first qualifiers will start on 21 June 2022. The dates for the second qualifier will be announced soon.

    Both the playoff matches of the qualifiers and the final match of the first season will be broadcast live exclusively on Penta Esports. Students can complete the registration process for the tournament by visiting ‘www.pentaesports.com’. The league’s complete information, including match schedules, match results, VODs of tournaments and leagues, content, news, announcements, and much more, can be found at the company’s official website.

    Speaking about the idea behind this new esports league, Penta Esports founder and CEO Anurag Khurana said, “Our major focus is to provide opportunities to the budding esports athletes at the grass-root level. Esports is rapidly gaining popularity as a viable path for many and we want to provide a platform similar to conventional sports to aspiring esports athletes. The scholarship aims to help esports athletes in their endeavours.”

    Commenting on the partnership, Loco founder Ashwin Suresh, said, “Game streaming is no longer looked upon as just a casual hobby. As more gamers become creators and start streaming, and new tournament organisers create more events, newer audiences are drawn to watch this content. The increased viewership will eventually lead to an increase in revenue for the overall ecosystem. As a pioneer of this industry, we’re excited to see it expand and we’re playing an active role in helping it grow. With our association with the ‘Penta Collegiate League’, we aim to support budding streamers and kickstart their esports careers.”

  • Loco launches ‘Loco Originals’ with ‘Charcha with Thugwa’ season 3

    Loco launches ‘Loco Originals’ with ‘Charcha with Thugwa’ season 3

    Mumbai: Live game streaming platform Loco is strengthening its footprint with the launch of Loco Originals. The platform announced season 3 of the popular chat show ‘Charcha With Thugwa’, hosted by a popular streamer, 8Bit Thug (Animesh Agarwal). 

    The previous seasons of ‘Charcha With Thugwa’ were aired on Thug’s official YouTube channel showcasing a lineup of gamers who shared their experiences in the esports world. The latest season will be exclusively available on the Loco app with fresh episodes dropping every Saturday, starting 17 July.

    In this season, Thug will be seen indulging in candid conversations with top-of-the-line gamers and streamers like Mortal, Jonathan, Dynamo, and many more, over the eight episodes. Gillette has chosen to be the brand partner for Season 3 recognizing the synergies between the target audiences of both brands.

    “With game streaming and esports, we are witnessing the rise of a completely new category in entertainment and at Loco, we are excited to serve this ecosystem,” Loco founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh said in a joint statement. “While we are just getting started on our library for Loco Originals, our goal remains to engage gamers and viewers on the platform, and Charcha With Thugwa – Season 3 aligns with that objective seamlessly. With more exciting content in store for gamers, we are hopeful to see a surge in users on the platform.”

    “Having started ‘Charcha With Thugwa’ in 2019, I have had the chance to interact with some of India’s featured gaming icons and it has truly been an enriching experience for me,” 8Bit Thug said. “Leveraging this first of its kind, gaming talk show, we were able to tap into the potential fan base of gamers and gain momentum for this rapidly scaling industry in India. I am super excited to partner with Loco for this season as it will help us target relevant audiences, present on the platform. I am looking forward to the latest season presented by Gillette, which has a bigger lineup of gamers and more insightful conversations into our universe of gaming.”

  • Pocket Aces’ Loco sees over 6x rise in daily active users

    Pocket Aces’ Loco sees over 6x rise in daily active users

    KOLKATA: With the lockdown accelerating the growth of India’s gaming market, the country’s leading game streaming and esports app, Loco, has witnessed a 6x growth in DAUs in the past month. The viewership increase has been driven by a growth in the number of active streamers on the platform, including India’s top streamers, who are now actively streaming on Loco. Monthly active streamers have increased by 122 per cent month on month during the last three months and continue to accelerate at a breakneck pace.

    Loco sees over 1,000+ hours of live gaming content being streamed per day and this is likely to grow further in the coming months. The platform enables users to watch and stream gameplays of different games such as PUBG Mobile, FreeFire, and Call of Duty Mobile. Loco houses some of India’s top competitive gamers such as Jonathan, Ghatak, IND Snax, and Xyaa, who, along with top teams like Fnatic, IND, 8bit, and Team Tamilas, provide viewers with the very best of gaming entertainment. The platform is also pioneering the regional language game streaming space with regular South India-focused programming being created in association with Sky esports and Midfail, the leading Tamil streamer, streaming on the platform.

    Commenting on Loco’s growth trajectory, Pocket Aces founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh said, “With game streaming and esports, we are witnessing the rise of a completely new category in entertainment and we are excited to serve this ecosystem through Loco. Over the past few months, we have seen consumption growing rapidly and this has been accompanied by strong positive sentiment from content creators, publishers, and advertisers. The gaming community and culture is getting stronger by the day as the sector transitions from a niche hobby to a mainstream interest. We are now seeing streamers come to the fore from various walks of life and different parts of the country, entertaining audiences in their own unique way. We are really grateful for the support of various ecosystem participants and believe that we are just scratching the surface when it comes to the potential of this sector.”

    Loco’s notable growth comes amidst a recent report on India’s media and entertainment sector by FICCI and EY, stating that the online gaming industry grew at a rapid rate of 40 per cent in the year 2020. With a mission of transforming esports into popular culture in India, the homegrown app forged an esports partnership with Redbull, manufacturer of the world’s leading energy drink to broadcast the finale of the Red Bull Flick tournament. The platform has also struck an industry-defining strategic alliance with Fnatic India, where the two will co-create unique esports content together which includes multiple tournaments and non-fiction shows. In August, Loco, in association with the POCO M2 Pro hosted its first ever original PUBG tournament that garnered over three million views, with Team Celtz winning the tournament and 8bit Akshat winning the MVP title. 

    Being one of the earliest entrants in the Indian game streaming and esports broadcasting space, Loco has cemented its position in the rapidly growing ecosystem which comprises over 600 million gamers.

  • Pocket Aces’ Loco, Fnatic enter into long-term, multi-pronged strategic alliance

    Pocket Aces’ Loco, Fnatic enter into long-term, multi-pronged strategic alliance

    NEW DELHI: Leading live game streaming app- Loco announced a long-term partnership with global esports organisation, Fnatic, in a first-of-its-kind partnership for the Indian gaming ecosystem.

    Fnatic is one of the world’s preeminent esports organisations and has an unrivalled decade-long legacy in a variety of games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and more. The company is now pioneering the PUBG Mobile esports space with its squad-based out of India.

    As part of the partnership, Loco will onboard Fnatic India’s entire roster onto the app (which include some of India’s leading streamers and gamers) who will broadcast exclusive content on Loco.

    Loco and Fnatic will also co-create unique esports content together. This includes multiple tournaments and non-fiction shows. The two companies believe that esports content is in a nascent stage and the coming together of two organisations with a strong content pedigree will deliver unparalleled entertainment to gaming fans in India.

    Pocket Aces founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh said, “Fnatic and Pocket Aces share a common vision of building a sustainable esports ecosystem in India. We want to provide Indian esports and gaming fans, world-class gaming entertainment across formats and this partnership will ensure that this shared vision is realised very soon. Fnatic has made a strong commitment to Indian gaming and as the home of Indian gaming, we are delighted to welcome them!”

    Fnatic lead India Nimish Raut said, “At Fnatic, we are dedicated to entertaining our fans through content and new formats of gaming. We believe that esports has the potential to be the top form of entertainment in this country and these shared thoughts make Pocket Aces and Loco the perfect partner as we seek to level-up the content play in India. As a pioneer in the digital content space, Pocket Aces has a history of building entertainment channels from scratch and working with one of the best talents. We are thrilled to be working with Loco to build the future of esports and entertainment together."

    In the last few months, Loco has seen a surge in streamer signups which has been ~ 50x more than expected. Recently, Loco also hosted an exclusive partnership with another esports giant – Skyesports for a ‘Grandslam Tournament’ across five game titles. The association between Fnatic and Loco started early April this year, for a PUBG Mobile charity tournament called #GamingForGood that witnessed a total viewership of 5.8 million.

  • Pocket Aces’ new desi-animation channel, Jambo, launches first web-series Namooney

    Pocket Aces’ new desi-animation channel, Jambo, launches first web-series Namooney

    MUMBAI: Pocket Aces has marked its foray into animation with the launch of Jambo, a desi-animation channel for young adults. Dispelling the myth that animation is meant only for children, Jambo has already built a library of snackable animated videos which resonates with young adult audiences in the Hindi-belt across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand AND Madhya Pradesh. The channel is now set to release India’s first desi-animation comedy web-series, Namooney, on YouTube starting from 16 May 2020.

    Set in the fictional town of Bhandipur, Namooney showcases the relationship between two distinct personalities, Suresh (Sesh) and Neeraj, who happen to be hostel roommates at an engineering college, IIIT Bhandipur. While Sesh is a lazy, yet intelligent individual, Neeraj is a goody-two-shoes who is steadfast in his ways. They share the hostel room with a talking lizard, Ankit, who considers the room to be his family estate and is amused by Neeraj's by-the-book approach to life. Hilarity ensues when Ankit provokes a bored Sesh to have fun at Neeraj’s expense. The series follows Neeraj as he comes to terms with living by himself for the first time while navigating the ups and downs of college-life, under the (mis)guidance of Sesh and Ankit.

    Pocket Aces founder Ashwin Suresh said, “Desi-animation for the young adult market is grossly underserved. We believe the genre has incredible potential and is yet to be tapped in a meaningful manner. Staying true to our mission of solving boredom, we have launched Jambo to serve audiences in the Hindi-belt with their daily dose of animated comedy. With the upcoming launch of our first long-form IP, Namooney, we aim to rapidly grow our audience base, create a strong multi-season franchise, and develop a popular character universe.”

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  • Pocket Aces founders discuss digital journey, jobs for writers and attention to consumer

    Pocket Aces founders discuss digital journey, jobs for writers and attention to consumer

    MUMBAI: Digital entertainment company Pocket Aces began its journey in 2014 and today it has four successful brands under its umbrella – Filter Copy, Dice, Gobble and Loco. The company’s founders Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita took the audience through their journey at Vidnet 2019 organised by Indiantelevision.com on 3 October. The duo shared their thoughts on the journey of the company, challenges and experiences working with YouTube and OTT platforms in an interactive session with Hungama Digital Entertainment VP Soumini Sridhara Paul. At the event, they also expressed that the lack of data available on OTT platforms is the biggest challenge as content creators are used to looking at data to improvise and come up with successful content. 

    Pandita said, “Early days are always tough. It has been about trying and finding out more about the consumer; what is really changing in the world. That's something on which we spent a lot of time during the last six to nine months.”

    Sharing some of his experiences, Suresh said, “One of the things that we remember from the early days is that every time we meet writers, they will always meet us with a sense of hope, they were just hoping against hope for the positive responses from the industry. The industry or an ecosystem should create more jobs; we have to create more opportunities for writers to tell their stories. We have to find writers who can align with the audience because I think there is merit in thinking from a consumer point of view and if the consumers tell us that we want to look at certain types of content, we have to matchmake between writers who can create that or creators who can create that and the audiences. That's how we position ourselves in the industry.”

    Pandita said, “I think we are very focused on figuring out the distribution angle and we recognise there are creators who needed it for them. Every person has to share something, which probably can be made into a film or a short story. These guys couldn't do it earlier as there was no platform like YouTube channels, Facebook, etc. Now there are many distribution channels which will distribute their stories.”

    The duo also shared its experience on working for YouTube and OTT platforms, “We didn't think that we have content that we should have put up somewhere. We thought reverse and said that whatever people are watching how do we reach them and we asked what kind of content made distribution easy on the platform. In the beginning, we learnt from short-form content and that gave us insights for long-form.”

    Suresh said, “I think the best part about working with OTT platforms is the fact that they have the ability to move quickly and to build things that are even complex. So Little Things got picked up by Netflix in season 2. Even as we've been working with them after that what's amazing about platforms like Netflix is that whatever the show needs, they will make available everything possible, which is truly very refreshing for somebody who's been in the film business for a few years.”

    Replying to Sridhara’s question on whether Pocket Aces wants to be seen as a tech-driven media company or media-driven tech company, Pandita said, “We will evolve with technology as it is always a tool to get our final outcome. We look forward to even the older TV, cable or satellite companies that are seeking to resolve any issues. Anywhere we see that opportunity, we will bounce on.”

  • TVF launches mockumentary titled ‘Not Fit’

    TVF launches mockumentary titled ‘Not Fit’

    MUMBAI: The Viral Fever (TVF) founded by Arunabh Kumar, has released an original mockumentary series titled Not Fit. The trailer and the first episode of the web series was aired on 16 December, 2015 on TVF Play. The series is created by Dice Media.

     

    The new series follows the path of the popular web series Pitchers, which was a success. The series is written and directed by Sudev Nair and is a tongue-in-cheek look at the world of aspiring actors and the weird and wonderful environment they inhabit.

     

    Talking about the new series, Kumar says, “The fabulous team of Dice Media led by Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita along with Sudev Nair have been able to create an original series that is akin to our TVF mantra and we are happy to have them as our partners.”

     

    “We are extremely proud to have created Not Fit, soon after the tremendous success of our previous videos,Ban Ban, and Neta Sabki Leta. We are working hard to bring more engaging and entertaining content to young Indian audiences and look forward to collaborating with Arunabh and his team,” added Dice Media co-founder Ashwin Suresh.

     

    Speaking about the new initiative Dice Media co-founder Anirudh Pandita said, “We’re happy to partner with TVF on this series. We believe the company has the right audience for this show and this partnership allows us to showcase our content to them. The two brands have a common mission, which makes us natural partners as we push the envelope when it comes to content formats in India.”

     

    The prequel of to the series is already out on YouTube.