Anthill Ventures floats accelerator programme for media and entertainment startups

Anthill Ventures, an early-stage investment firm and scaling platform for startups, has partnered with film production and distribution company Suresh Productions to launch a business accelerator programme called Anthill Studios, a company statement said.

Anthill Studios is aimed at technology startups that are building solutions for film, television, gaming and digital media. The startups should have capabilities focused on augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual effects, real-time cloud rendering and big data.

Anthill Ventures and its network of investors will invest up to $1 million in each promising startup of the programme.

Rana Daggubati, popular film actor and producer, and Prasad Vanga, technology investor and founder of Anthill Ventures, will spearhead the studio.

“Anthill Studios will bring the best of tech to the media and entertainment world by engaging global startups in a three-month-long acceleration programme. Media and entertainment is a key focus area for Anthill Ventures’ upcoming $100 million fund,” said Vanga, who is also the chief executive of Anthill Ventures.

Anthill Ventures was founded in 2015 by Vanga, the former global head of change management and technology partnerships at professional services firm Genpact. It has three businesses, which includes an investment firm, advisory business and an accelerator. Besides providing capital, it also helps early-stage global startups at the pre-Series A levels to raise subsequent rounds within one or two years through its network of investors. It had initially raised a $2-million micro fund, through which it had built a portfolio around 22 companies across India, the US and Southeast Asia.

Last week, VCCircle reported that Anthill Ventures expects the first close of its new early-stage technology fund in April. The fund will have a co-investment pool aggregating upto $100 million (https://www.vccircle.com/anthill-ventures-early-stage-tech-fund-plans-first-close-in-april/) and will focus on investment opportunities in AI, virtual reality, augmented reality, machine learning and Internet of Things, across media and entertainment, health, urban infrastructure and finance companies. It plans to invest in companies based out of India, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Silicon Valley and Europe.