In new avatar, Asianxt Digital plans to raise up to $15 million

Jupiter Capital-backed news and entertainment media-tech player Asianxt Digital Technologies (earlier Asianet News Media & Entertainment), is in talks to raise $10-15 million in growth capital, as the company is looking to enter the social media space with a short format video app next month.

Confirming the development to Mint, Asianxt CEO Neeraj Kohli said, “We are looking to raise somewhere in the range of $10 to 15 million from like-minded investors. It is almost towards scaling up of our direct-to-consumer offering which is to be launched within a month. We have already done a product thesis; the blueprint is there and it’s currently in the initial stage. We are doing the POC (proof of concept) as we speak, but as we go to the market all that investment will go towards the product launch and expansion.”

Jupiter Entertainment Ventures, a subsidiary of Jupiter Capital Ventures, owns over 95% of Asianxt.

Kohli said that the company will dilute a minority stake as it has seen sustained revenue growth through covid till date and that the company’s “We ended the last financial year with a topline of 336 cr-ore and are on track to close the current year with over 400 crore,” he said.

The new offering will be a social media short-format video app. The USP is that it will use AI to help create cont-ent in multiple languages at the push of a button, he said.

“One of the unique features is that the creator can create content in her native langu-age, and we will enable it to be published in multiple languages,” he said. On competition with apps and services, he said there is enough space in the market to accommodate other products since AI-enabled content creation lets everyone define their own journey.

“If we speak about the number of content creators in India, it is highly underpenetr-ated. A large part of that gro-wth is going to come from regional pockets. We unders-tand regional clusters and segments far better than anyone else,” he said.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company has recently rebranded itself as Asianxt Digital Technologies, a move aimed at emphasizing its technological and digital-first foundations and signalling an entry into new markets and direct-to-consumer products.

The group already serves a monthly audience of over 130 million through its linear and digital platforms, including Asianetnews.com, a multilingual digital news hub, serving audiences in eight languages through its online, app and social media interfaces. It is also home to Asianet News (The no. 1 Malayalam news channel for over 20 years), Asianet Suvarna News (Kannada news channel), and a daily Kannada Prabha. It also owns IndigoMusic.com, the international music brand.

“Our vision is to serve content across audiences, agnostic of language and geography. With Asianxt, we aim to transcend barriers and offer diverse and engaging content to global consumers,” added Kohli. LiveMint