MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rainshine Entertainment, a newly formed media and entertainment (M&E) company, announced its first three investments today as it acquired significant stakes in Culture Machine, Weirdass Comedy and Kinsane Entertainment.
Founded by prolific entrepreneur and tech investor, Neeraj Bhargava, Founder of Zodius Capital, Co-Founder of NYSE-listed WNS and a former McKinsey & Company Partner, the company aims to acquire majority or high minority stakes in digital entertainment companies and work closely with them to build iconic content brands for both Indian and global audiences.
Key highlights of Rainshine Entertainment as it moves forward to be an active developer of digital entertainment talent, content and platforms:
- Established in late 2018 to acquire and grow digital entertainment brands primarily in the world’s most attractive market for digital content, India, with the aspiration of building a global business
- Besides Neeraj Bhargava who is the Chairman and CEO of Rainshine, Mihir Modi, CFO of Rainshine (former CFO of Zee Entertainment) and Anuraag Srivastava, COO of Rainshine, (previously with Zodius Capital and WNS), are the Co-Founders of the company
- Arun Sarin, the former global CEO of Vodafone and Michael Montgomery, ex-CFO of Dreamworks SKG, join the Rainshine Board as Non-Executive Directors
- With the three announced deals, Rainshine will have teams located in Mumbai, Los Angeles, New York, Chennai and Hyderabad
- Rainshine’s primary focus will be creating content across four genres: Drama, Comedy, Music and Kids/Fantasy
- Short-form, long-form, animation, games, live acts – multiple formats of content are created under the same umbrella
- Several major OTT platforms and consumer brands already benefitting tremendously from Rainshine’s creative and audience development endeavors
Commenting on the creation of Rainshine Entertainment and the three deals, Neeraj Bhargava, Chairman and CEO, Rainshine Entertainment said, “Rainshine will be a key developer of talent, content and platforms in digital entertainment, an industry ripe for rapid growth and disruption. We are delighted to partner with Sameer Pitalwalla, Vir Das and Kurt Inderbitzin along with their respective teams at Culture Machine, Weirdass Comedy and Kinsane Entertainment, invest in the businesses and help them build iconic and enviable content brands. We are currently assessing several deals and will add 3-4 acquisitions in the near future to comprehensively address our targeted genres and build a new industry leader.”
Rainshine Entertainment is committed to partnering with world-class content creators and developing cutting-edge content formats and experiences that enthrall audiences across India and the globe.
About Rainshine Entertainment:
Established in late 2018 in India, Rainshine Entertainment is a next-generation media and entertainment company. Rainshine houses a highly talented and diverse range of content creators offering a wide variety of content across genres, formats and languages. The company has its creative and management teams located in Mumbai, Los Angeles, New York, Chennai and Hyderabad.
For further details please visit www.rainshine.com
About Culture Machine:
Founded in 2013, Culture Machine is a digital media company that uses technology and storytelling to build great digital brands that people love. By combining cutting edge technology with great content, it runs some of India’s largest digital media brands. Culture Machine, a subsidiary of The Aleph Group, Singapore, has offices in India (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad).
For further details please visit www.culturemachine.co
About Weirdass Comedy:
Weirdass Comedy is the foremost comedy content studio and consultancy in India. The company focuses on developing and producing original content, driven by a pool of writers, directors and talent across languages and genres, from new wave to mainstream. In a short span of time Weirdass Comedy has created an impressive roster of work that includes highly popular original content for leading platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Applause, feature projects in the US and India, large branded content projects and some of India’s largest comedy tours and festivals. The vision of the company is to be a bridge between modern comedy ideas and commercial, scalable talent. Weirdass Comedy is based out of Mumbai, India.
For further details please visit www.weirdasscomedy.com
About Kinsane Entertainment:
Kinsane Entertainment, Inc. is a global digital entertainment company focused on 2 to 15 year-olds and families. The company creates and distributes engaging videos and games with captivating universes and characters that become iconic brands. Kinsane's goal is to take these brands, established in the digital space, and propagate them further through non-digital channels such as film, television, concerts and merchandising. Kinsane Entertainment has teams located in Mumbai, Los Angeles and New York.
For further details please visit www.kinsane.com
