The day three of IndiaJoy kicks off with the much-awaited investment platform SPARK KATALYST, organised by India’s leading animation, gaming, VFX and comics destination AnimationXpress dot com. AnimationXpress has initiated this platform to bridge the gap between the investors and IP creators.
The platform kicked off with the keynote from AnimationXpress founder and CEO Anil Wanvari on how the content-rich ecosystem is in need for investment more than ever with the homegrown IP rush and hence, this platform is acting as an investment accelerator, giving further momentum to the industry’s growth.
The opening keynote was followed by fireside chat between Wanvari and Cosmos Maya founder Ketan Mehta. Mehta addressed his expertise by sharing the guideline how to make company ready. He shared how Cosmos Maya started with 10 people and how it has evolved and expanded as one of India’s prominent studios.
He emphasised that with technology innovation and of involvement AR/ VR the industry has leapt at a tremendous level and it will leap more over the years. He emphasised a critical scenario of the Indian studios which is that they leaping into more money making business rather than creating fresh creative IPS. Citing an example he said studios aim in outsourcing and distribution of services these days to make money faster rather than creating IPs. Because “these days creators somewhat failed to transform stress into work. Sudden growth has a certain compulsion. Once you start growing you keep growing,” he said. Winding up Ketan empowered the creators with three pillars is through creativity, agility, scalability.”Creating IPs that will embrace the world,” he added.
This talk session was followed by t-Hub founding, executive, CEO Srinivas Kollipara session on a new way of IP investment has expressed that an entrepreneur is the one who brings the investment for their IPs. T-Hub is designed for technology-related start-ups, and its mission is to catalyze the creation of one of the tightest and most vibrant entrepreneur communities in the world in order to encourage and fuel more start-up success stories in India. It has equipped innovators and organisations alike with the entrepreneurship skills required to succeed, using methodologies that transcend traditional learning.
With the rush of IP creation, The Indian ecosystem is in need of investment more than ever. As investors too are recognising this, AnimationXpress speaking with Antihill investors has comprehended the process of investment and all its aspects. Antihill have an in-house tool called SQ (Scalability Quotient) score which assesses the start-ups based on 108 parameters.
The event further proceeded with the much-awaited Investors meet. The platform has targeted animation studios that have created great IPs and are looking for partners. The initiative of AnimationXpress has witnessed amazing traction of investors like Tenscent, Anthil, Green Gold Animation, DQE, Jet Synthesis, ETV, Reliance Jio, t-hub and IP creators like Rocket Science Animation, Wishing Tree Studios, Native Puppets Animation Studios, Brio Studios, Purple Turtle Studio, Inbuilt Creativity, Dot Animation Studio, Priya Toonz, Acropetal animation Studios apart from that there were some international studios from Korea, China who has also participated actively at the meet.
With the response from the industry people, Wanvari expressed that “ It was an absolutely fantastic experience as the industry responded very well both from studios and investors. We hope to get some success stories to come out from this platform where we have stitched together investment, deals, co-productions, the partnership deals between studios and investors. I am really happy with the kind of response that AnimationXpress have received at the SPARK KATALYST.
Apart from SPARK KATALYST there were Google developers meet, along with exciting knowledge sharing sessions by studios at Asifa CG meetup. These were followed by IGX PLAYMAX Esports arena along with segment ADI where the animation industry showcased how possibly it can win over impossible, experimental animated filmmaking process. The day ends with amazing gigs by Nalaayak, local train, Kan-I, CandiceRedding, Jetfire at Pandora’s music festival.