Bengaluru-based TOKO Innovation Studios, who are creating a digital destination for children that can be viewed on mobile and web browsers, has raised Rs. 3 crore from Indian Angel Network (IAN). Roopak Saluja, Founder & CEO of The 120 Media Collective and new media company, Sooperfly, and Vishal Khare have led this round on behalf of IAN and Saluja will join the board of the company. This round has been co-led by Rajasthan Angel Investor Network, who will be represented on the board by Ajay Data.
Founded in February 2014 by Aditya Mukherjee (CEO), Arnav Mukherjee (Content Head) and Ajitsen Surendran (CTO) with an idea of making toys & games that are connected to stories, TOKO’s current vision is to become a leading player in the entertainment space focusing on children. TOKO is targeting the Indian market with the aim of expanding across emerging markets globally, including a strong focus on Asia.
The investment will be primarily used for the product development, user growth and content partnerships. Prior to founding TOKO, Aditya was working with Bain & Company as a Strategy Consultant. He is also the author of two novels, one of them with his co-founder Arnav. Arnav also brings extensive global experience and contacts, while Ajit, the third founder, is an experienced technologist who has 3 patents to his name and has worked in Yahoo for 9+ years.
The current transition from a text-based internet to an audio-visual internet is creating hundreds of millions of new and very active users and there is tremendous whitespace for children-focused companies to be formed based on this transition. India has more children than the next 3 countries (China, US, Indonesia) put together. Of these, 100M children are online already, and the number is expected to increase to ~135M next year giving India the largest population of children online in the world. This number is expected to rapidly rise to ~200M by 2020.
With close to 400 investors from 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and UK. Its portfolio, with over 100-odd companies, spans 17 sectors across 7 countries. Over 4,000 entrepreneurs pitch to IAN each year, and IAN has invested in over 55 ventures over the last two years. IAN portfolio companies have given 70x returns in 6 years, 21x in 30 months, 22x in 60 months, and 6x in 15 months; with ventures such as Druva, Stayzilla, and Webengage well on their way to become unicorns.
Advertisements