Get All Access for $5/mo

PlayVerse Raises $1.5 Million In Seed Funding Round Led By Akatsuki Inc PlayVerse looks to maximize the monetization potential of popular Japanese IPs and brands in India

By Saptak Bardhan

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Company

PlayVerse announced on Tuesday to have raised $ 1.5 million seed funding led by Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc. By offering world-class content, toys, games and technology products in India, the diverse platform will be focusing on its mission of providing an enriching experience to the end consumers of the country. With an aim to increase cross-border collaborations between India and Japan, PlayVerse looks to maximize the monetization potential of popular Japanese IPs and brands in India.

"Thanks to the advent of blockchain technology and the scalability offered by promising L2 protocols, we have some moonshot ideas of IP monetization that we are exploring. At the moment, we are focused on customer discovery and hypothesis testing to assess product-market fit," said Jaineel Aga, founder, PlayVerse.

A FICCI-EY report estimated that by 2025, 50 per cent of the total time spent on OTT platforms will be to consume regional content. PlayVerse will also be aiming at localizing global content into regional Indian languages to be inclusive and accessible to the diverse vernacular Indian audience. The Indian toys market reached a value of $1.35 billion in 2021 and with more than 400 million online gamers in India, the Indian gaming industry is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2025, according to a statement given by the company.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Jaineel Aga, PlayVerse is planning to launch its own D2C brand which will be focused on an interconnected universe of content and play. It aims to unlock the full potential of an IP with a 360-degree approach to content and merchandise. This merchandise would include both physical products such as toys as well as digital assets like avatars, emojis, and skins creating more interest among users. PlayVerse will be actively focusing on enabling content owners to maximize the monetization potential of their IPs. PlayVerse looks to build on its philosophy of joy infinitum meaning, spreading infinite joy to its consumers.

Saptak Bardhan

Former Trainee Writer

Former Trainee Writer
Growth Strategies

AMD Confident About Increasing Market Share In India

The semiconductor company is positive about the business environment in India on the back of growing investments in data centers and AI, Cloud repatriation, as well as technology refresh taking place across companies on both server side and client devices

Lifestyle

Here's a quick five points to decode 10 years of Kiara Advani in Bollywood

As the actress shared an emotional post on her social media while celebrating her decade-long ride as a Bollywood star, with multiple superhit films and more than 25 brand endorsements in her kitty, we look at five interesting points to encapsulate the journey of Kiara Advani.

Devices

Clean up Your Mac Software with This $12 Family Plan, for One Week Only

Save on a program that can optimize your company's Mac computers.

News and Trends

Indian Airlines Hopeful Of Mitigating Current Challenges

The aviation industry is at a juncture marked by changing market dynamics and rapid innovation. Airlines such as Air India, Vistara, Air India Express, Akasa Air are adopting measures to navigate through a set of impediments

Lifestyle

Actress Nupur Sanon breaks boundaries between fashion and business with her new brand, No Boundaries

As Bollywood actress Nupur Sanon starts her new clothing brand NoBo—No Boundaries recently, in conversation with Entrepreneur India, the young artist opens up on her childhood story that inspired her to start her journey as an entrepreneur, why fashion policing on women should stop, and how she is balancing between establishing a homegrown brand and working on her next film Noorani Chehra with Nawazuddin Siddiqui.