Singapore-based media and entertainment-related investments company, Vistas Media Capital announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Indian animation company Paperboat Design Studios for an undisclosed amount. The studio, with more than 250 full time employees across its offices in Mumbai and Hyderabad, will help to make further strides for Vistas Media Capital’s growing media ecosystem that spans across film and video content, NFT, gaming and Metaverse.
The acquisition of the majority stake reflects Vistas Media Capital’s ongoing commitment to expanding its value chain of media, entertainment, and related technologies. This deal comes at the heels of a newly announced film project between Golden Ratio Films, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vistas Media Capital and US-based production company Appian Way Productions just last month.
“Paperboat is a team of passionate, talented and creative people, who have demonstrated their capabilities in the past with multiple projects across animation and VFX. With their inclusion in the Vistas ecosystem, both companies will benefit from a synergistic relationship helping grow the business beyond India across content, NFT, gaming and Metaverse,” said Vistas Media Capital group CEO Abhayanand Singh.
Talking about the deal, Paperboat Design Studios CEO and cofounder Soumitra Ranade said, “We are extremely excited about becoming a part of Vistas Media Capital as it gives us an opportunity to explore exponential growth within and outside of India. The capital infused will be used to expand the team, create original IPs across genres and age groups and cross synergize other verticals of Vistas Media Capital. The business and its offerings are at an inflection point of massive explosion in the post Covid world, across digital and traditional media and entertainment verticals.”
Established more than a decade ago, Paperboat Design Studio has created animation and design work, as well as produced live-action film for a diverse clientele. The studio also offers VFX and CGI services through its majorly owned subsidiary Occult Studios, based out of Mumbai. Some of the major clients of Paperboat and Occult include Disney India, Discovery Kids, McCann, World Bank, Coca Cola, Cadburys, Nestle, Burger King, and Reebok.
Paperboat has also worked on a number of popular television series including Bandbudh aur Budbak and Fukrey Boyzz. The studio also worked on the 2D animated feature film, Bombay Rose, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was the first Indian animation to open for the Venice Film Critics’ Week. Bombay Rose received critical acclamation for its animation quality and was the winner for Best Animated Film at the 2021 ANN awards.
Currently, Paperboat is working on two international animation projects – Bhrigu and the Palace of Mirrors based on the book with the same name and Kabuliwala, based on the classic short story by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
