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Tag: Clout

  • Pocket Aces plays new card with Finnet investment

    Pocket Aces plays new card with Finnet investment

    MUMBAI: From filters to finance: Pocket Aces cashes in with Finnet. The Saregama-backed digital entertainment company has announced an investment in Finnet Media, a rising star in managing creators across finance, infotainment, and healthcare.

    Finnet, which represents more than 40 influencers including Anushka Rathod, Chandralekha, Shankar Bhalla, and Dr Pal, has worked with over 500 advertisers and built a 50-member team since its humble beginnings in Bhopal. With this deal, it now finds itself on a bigger stage, supported by one of India’s most dynamic media players.

    For Pocket Aces, the move marks a strategic expansion of its creator management arm, Clout, which already works with over 240 talents in entertainment, comedy, fashion, food, and wellness. Together with Finnet, the portfolio now stretches further into finance and health, categories booming with Gen z audiences looking for trustworthy voices.

    Finnet’s founder and CEO Ayush Shukla reflected on the journey: “I started out with no connections, no backing, just belief in creators. Today, to be invested in by Pocket Aces is validation of that belief. With this partnership, we’re set to go deeper into BFSI and health, driving trust, scale, and growth.”

    Pocket Aces co-founder and CEO Aditi Shrivastava echoed the enthusiasm, “Finnet’s creators are the voice through which millions of young Indians understand money, entrepreneurship, and wellness. We believe the creator economy will only grow bigger, shaping how people learn, shop, and engage.”

    From Filtercopy’s viral sketches to Dice Media’s hit shows and now Finnet’s finance-first storytellers, Pocket Aces seems intent on proving one thing, in India’s creator economy, the house always wins.

  • Saregama acquires majority stake in Pocket Aces

    Saregama acquires majority stake in Pocket Aces

    Mumbai: A new chapter in Saregama’s growth story commences with a majority acquisition in a fast-growing digital entertainment company Pocket Aces Pictures Pvt Ltd, that owns direct relationships with over 95M younger digital-first customers across Instagram, YouTube, etc. Saregama will acquire 51.8 per cent shares for Rs  174 crores with a clear path to further acquire another 41 per cent stake in the next 15 months at pre-agreed multiples. The transaction is an all-cash deal.

    This acquisition will further strengthen Saregama’s strategic ambiton to take leadership position in new music across all Indian languages.  

    Pocket Aces, a youth-focussed digital content creator and publisher, boasts of an IP catalog of over 3000  content pieces ranging across web series, sketches, music videos and reels on its channels FilterCopy, Nutshell and Gobble, and releases over 30 new pieces of content every day. The company’s talent management arm, Clout, manages over 100 digital influencers, and its long-form studio, Dice Media, has created relatable youth-centric web series across OTT platforms such as Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon.

    Pocket Aces’ revenue from operations was Rs 104 cr in FY23. Revenue has grown by 34 per cent CAGR over the last 4 years and is expected to grow even faster in future.

    Acquiring Pocket Aces will add on a whole new dimension of IP and a distribution network of over 95 million followers, which Saregama will leverage to further popularize its music library among the 18-35 audience segment. It will also create synergies across the artiste & influencer management and long-format video creation businesses of the two companies.

    Saregama vice chairperson Avarna Jain said, “This acquisition signifies the confluence of tradition and innovation. While we have always been leaders in the realm of music and media, this partnership with Pocket  Aces will add new dimensions to our business as we tap into the burgeoning young digital audiences.”

     

  • Pocket Aces elevates Vinay Pillai to head of strategy

    Pocket Aces elevates Vinay Pillai to head of strategy

    MUMBAI: Homegrown digital entertainment company, Pocket Aces, has elevated Vinay Pillai to the dual position of head of strategy and head of clout. Vinay joined Pocket Aces in 2020 to scale Clout, its influencer management business, and has played a crucial role in getting it to a leadership position.

    In this enhanced role, Vinay will work on establishing key strategic partnerships that will not only aid in scaling the current revenue and profitability but also cement Pocket Aces’ leadership position in the sector long-term. Prior to Pocket Aces, Vinay was the co-founder of dekkho, India’s first content streaming OTT platform. Post dekkho, he headed the OTT platform at The Viral Fever, called TVF Play.

    Vinay is a computer science engineer and an MS from Columbia University, New York. He spent most of his career in product and strategy consulting with companies like DramaFever, DocPlace, and Booz in the US before returning to India.

    Commenting on his new position, Vinay Pillai shared, “I am extremely excited to take up this crucial additional responsibility to shape our strategic direction along with Aditi. Leading Clout over the last few years has been an absolute pleasure, and I have thoroughly enjoyed building it from scratch to a market leader today with an amazing team. Additionally, I look forward to now working with Pocket Aces’ finest leaders across other business units to help them scale our company to even greater heights. We have prided ourselves on always doing things in a data-backed way with a huge impetus on innovation. I feel honoured to now get to contribute in a Pocket Aces wide central capacity with our stellar young team and would like to thank Aditi for the opportunity.”

    Pocket Aces co-founder & CEO Aditi Shrivastava said, “For the head of strategy role, I wanted someone who would work alongside me to add to our vision of taking our cutting-edge media business to the next level. Vinay is a non-linear thinker. He has founder blood, as well as a blend of consulting and operational experience. These give him a unique vantage point on how to take on incumbents while also giving him the hard operational expertise of scaling businesses on the ground with growing teams. Vinay has done an excellent job of scaling Clout, and I’m excited to see him in this enhanced role. Vinay will be working closely with the rest of our management team, who will take the lead in putting our strategic direction into action.”

  • Pocket Aces unveils talent management division Clout

    Pocket Aces unveils talent management division Clout

    KOLKATA: Pocket Aces, India’s leading digital entertainment company, unveiled new branding for its talent management division, labeling it “Clout”.Clout, which means the ability to influence, will focus on exclusively representing the digital industry’s finest and most popular faces.

    It will be responsible for offering comprehensive and fully integrated services, facilitating social media growth, IP creation, branded content and endorsements, PR and events, training across various skillsets, casting across all touchpoints including films, web series and TVCs. The team will also act as mentors and sounding boards for important career decisions in the fast-evolving media landscape. Exclusive talent will also have dedicated business managers to ensure high quality, high touch engagement.

    Clout’s roster currently boasts of 50+ exclusive talents including popular faces like Barkha Singh, Ayush Mehra, Ahsaas Channa, Komal Pandey, Yashaswini Dayama, Viraj Ghelani, Kriti Vij, Pranay Manchanda, Vrushika Mehta, Disha Madan, in addition to 100+ non-exclusive talentClout has executed successful campaigns for brands like UberEats, Amazon Pay, Swarovski, Revv Cars, Hotstar, and Prime Video, Bumble, Aditya Birla Investing, to name a few. The wing has also played a pivotal role in casting talented actors like Akashdeep Arora in the movie Uri, Rohan Khurana in Thappad, Sukant Goel in Ghost Stories among many others.

    Pocket Aces has a massive advantage compared to other talent management companies – they know how to build brands on digital, they have their own channels platforms to give the talent unparalleled visibility, and have a global footprint that the talent can leverage. 

    Speaking on the unveiling, Pocket Aces co-founder  Aditi Shrivastava said, “We are thrilled to add Clout, another strong media brand, to our kitty. Ever since our inception, Pocket Aces has been discovering and giving a growth path to talented actors and creators via our own channels, as well as via our strong partnerships with brands and OTT platforms. Now with the creation of Clout, we are excited to formally spur the growth of this talent, build their individual brands, and give them visibility at a global level. In just a few months, we’ve built an extremely strong and passionate team, and are well on our way to becoming the #1 talent managers in the digital landscape.”

    Clout co-lead Juhi Singh shared, “We’ve built out our talent wing with great care and aim to build a well-balanced pool of talent to represent. By focusing on casting or brand associations for talent most suited to their profile, we look forward to creating opportunities that will bring them in the forefront of some great shows, series, films and brands. From the casting viewpoint, many avenues are opening up where digital talent is front lining shows and films. Scoping these out for our talent is our primary objective and in order to achieve this, we are constantly working with industry’s leading producers, directors and casting agencies.”

    Commenting on this announcement, Clout co-lead Vinay Pillai added, “Being a pioneer of creating original and noteworthy content, we see tremendous potential in Clout providing talented creators and actors a strong medium to collaborate with leading brands. We truly believe that our country is home for some outstanding talent and Clout will help them get the right opportunities at the right time. We have been successful with striking collaborations like Gillette Venus and we look forward to many more. We also plan to introduce workshops for our digital influencers in the near future. Having pioneered branded content on digital, we are excited to expand this out to creators we work with and further strengthen our partnerships with reputed brands.”