India and Singapore based animation studio Cosmos-Maya has named Priti Karandikar as the senior vice president of New Business, expanding its senior team in Mumbai. In her new role, Karandikar will be reporting to Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta and will focus on the growth of licensing and merchandising, Ed-tech content creation and new digital media verticals.
The appointment is in line with the company’s expansion plans and its focus of increasing reach and further exploitation for both its owned and acquired brands. Karandikar comes with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience and has held senior positions in the Consumer Products Divisions at The Walt Disney Company and Viacom 18.
Commenting on this appointment, Mehta said, “It is a very exciting time to be in the kids’ audiovisual space. With the sheer increase in consumption, proliferation of platforms and new technology coming in every day, the market is robust and full of opportunity. My hearty welcome to Priti, as she joins us in a new growth phase as a business. With Priti heading up business development, we envisage a more holistic approach to brand monetization, with all divisions working in tandem to drive revenues.”
At Disney Karandikar worked for close to a decade, and was a part of the brand building efforts in India right from the start-up phase in 2004. She was a part of the core L&M team at Viacom 18 as a sales director, managing five key categories for the entire kids’ portfolio across India and servicing brands including Colgate, Kellogg’s, Perfetti and ITC for Viacom 18’s promotional licensing portfolio.
Karandikar added, “I thank the Cosmos-Maya family for making this transition so seamless. Cosmos-Maya has some of the most established kids’ brands in its portfolio, those which lend themselves beautifully to licensing and brand extensions. My immediate focus areas are L&M, Ed-tech content creation and new digital media with the aim to further strengthen the value chain right from content creation to content monetisation for the next cycle of growth.”
Cosmos-Maya’s journey from being a standalone animation production studio to creator of both fully owned domestic, and globally co-produced IP, has been momentous and has seen the studio develop a robust sales and syndication pipeline. The next phase of organic growth will see an expansion of the New Businesses division, which includes the maturing Licensing & Merchandising, EdTech Content Creation and New Digital Media areas of the business.
Cosmos-Maya Revenue and Corporate Strategy SVP Devdatta Potnis mentioned, “Karandikar is an astute salesperson with the right blend of enthusiasm, passion and diligence. She is a welcome addition to the sales force, which has now become stronger and more diversified.”
