Indian music label Saregama today said it has acquired a 51.8% stake in Mumbai-based digital entertainment company Pocket Aces Pictures Private Limited for Rs 174 crore and looks to acquire a 41% stake further in the next 15 months at pre-agreed multiples.
Why Saregama acquires Pocket Aces?
Explaining the reason, Saregama said Pocket Aces reaches over 95 million digital users across Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms.
Pocket Aces, a Youth-focussed digital content creator and publisher, boasts of an IP catalogue 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.
The all-cash deal would help the Indian music label to strengthen its strategic ambition to take a leadership position in New Music across all Indian languages, the release notes.
How well is Pocket Aces performing financially?
Pocket Acess, which owns brands like Dice Media, Filter Copy, Loco, and Gobble, revenue from operations was Rs 104 crore in FY23 and has grown by 34% CAGR over the last 4 years and is expected to grow even faster in future.
As Saregama said, the acquisition will add on a whole new dimension of IP and a distribution network of over 95 million followers, which the music label 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.
Avarna Jain, Vice Chairperson Saregama, 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.”
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