Technology has transformed the media industry beyond measure, and no, we’re not just talking about special effects! From streaming to virtual reality to customised recommendations for individuals — the media industry today is driven by advanced technology.
The metaverse is going to be a game-changer for media and entertainment. Fuelled by technologies such as artificial intelligence and trends such as influencer economy and NFTs, the media industry is set for a massive revolution.
Here are five startups that are ahead of the curve:
CoffeeMug
Investor and founder connection is a match made in heaven, or should we say, a match made in CoffeeMug? This is a networking portal for professionals that is powered by AI. The platform helps professionals, business leaders, and investors find connections that can become long-lasting relationships.
CoffeeMug was founded by Dipti Tandon, founder of Jeevansathi.com and Magicbricks, and Abhishek Sharma, a seasoned entrepreneur, in January 2020. The startup, which is based in Singapore, is a video-first global platform that helps form 1:1 connections virtually, or over coffee. The startup uses an AI-based algorithm for matchmaking and suggests connections to professionals based on multiple factors.
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TrulyMadly
Snehil Khanor launched TrulyMadly in 2013 to help people find love. In the day and age of hookups, TrulyMadly helps singles find serious relationships.
The platform is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to help its users find compatible life partners. Users can connect their social media accounts to get verified. The platform uses trust-based scores to verify its users. The users’ scores will increase if they verify themselves via social media and also provide photo-ID proof. The app’s algorithm will skim through social media to check if the user is single. Matches are suggested based on a compatibility score calculated after a psychological quiz.
STAGE
If you are a fan of standup comedy, there’s a good chance you already know of this startup. STAGE is a streaming platform for dialect-based hyperlocal content.
The startup, based in Indore, was founded by Vinay Singhal, along with Shashank Vaishnav and Parveen Singhal in 2020. The startup is poised to be the Netflix for Bharat.
As over the top content consumption market grows, the need for hyperlocal content is expected to rise phenomenally. Mobile phone penetration will grow and the launch of 5G will make the internet accessible to more and more people. This startup is setting the STAGE for this growing market and has an early mover advantage.
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Currently, it hosts popular content, including stand up and poetry in Haryanvi and Rajashtani. STAGE features content formats like long-duration web series, movies, short films, standup comedians, poetry, folk, and much more.
The startup is making revenue through in-app advertisements. As of now, STAGE has more than 80,000 paid subscribers and is adding approximately 1,000 subscribers in a day. In Haryanvi alone, more than 2,000 artists have collaborated and created content hosted on STAGE. Every day more and more local artists and collaborators are added to the cohort of content creators for STAGE
KahaniBox
KahaniBox is an interactive storytelling platform in Indian languages. It allows the audience not only to consume a story but also to interact and influence it by making decisions (like Bandersnatch on Netflix).
The startup uses technology to offer a unique content experience where the audience becomes one of the characters in the story and then plays it like an interactive video game. The audience can decide everything from their persona, who their friends/love interests are, their aspirations in the story, and even choose different endings for the same story.
Its proprietary tech solution to produce new content requires no coding, no graphics rendering, and has minimal human involvement that makes KahaniBox’s content cost 200x cheaper and 20 times faster with similar or better engagement than traditional OTT companies. It currently has over 2,000 live interactive episodes across all genres like romance, horror, drama, thriller, sci-fi, and more.
Founded by Zaid Azmi in 2019, Kahanibox aims to become the Netflix for interactive fiction in India by allowing 100 million+ monthly users to do role plays in their stories.
ClearDekho
Cleardekho is an affordable eyewear brand with a unique platform that blends both online and offline eyewear shopping experiences.
ClearDekho addresses a major need gap by improving the accessibility of high-quality, affordable eyeglasses to the low-income mass-market consumers across Tier 2, 3, and 4 cities/towns of India.
The brand envisions to standardise 80% unorganised optical retail market by targeting 85% affordable mass-market consumers through an asset-light omnichannel business model.
Founded by Shivi Singh and Saurabh Dayal, ClearDekho targets low-income mass-market consumers who primarily classify under the blue-collar workforce and don’t have access to affordable standardised optical solutions across remote geographies.
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Backed by Oyo founder Riteish Agarwal, ClearDekho strongly believes in working with the ecosystem and converts local unorganised optical stores into ClearDekho standardised brand outlets which differentiates them from any other standardised player
Jaipuria Family Office (Pepsi Bottlers), Anand Chandrasekaran, SOSV, Venture Catalysts, and others have invested already. The company is raising $7mn to boost growth and reach 300 stores to become the first and largest optical organised player in the affordable eyewear space in India.
To get to know these four groundbreaking startups better, catch Demo Day 2 (DDay2) organised by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns. You can access the showcase by registering here.
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Photo by Andrew Neel
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns
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