The firm, India’s largest digital entertainment company, will also invest in improving its technology for its mobile app platforms such as Hungama Music and Hungama Play
Hungama Digital Entertainment on Monday said it has received $25 million in the latest funding round led by Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, and other existing investors including Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and stock-market punter Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
Hungama Digital Entertainment on Monday said it has received $25 million in the latest funding round led by Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, and other existing investors including Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and stock-market punter Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
With the current round of funding, Hungama will expand its content library including adding 1,500 hours of television content, and venture into original programming, the company said in a statement. The firm, India’s largest digital entertainment company, will also invest in improving its technology for its mobile app platforms such as Hungama Music and Hungama Play, it said. Currently, Hungama Play has about 8,000 movies in English and 12 other Indian languages.
The funding comes at a time when consumers are consuming videos and music on high-speed 3G/4G communications networks, thanks to the declining internet subscription fees and low handset costs. Hungama has existing tie-ups with Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for its movie, television and music content apps, and has about 65 million monthly active users across all its platforms consuming over 3.5 million premium digital units of both audio and video content.For Xiaomi, known for its high-technology low-cost smartphones, the investment will help the handset maker to venture into selling entertainment services on its mobile phones.
“We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience,” said Hugo Barra, vice president, Xiaomi.
Hungama’s founder Neeraj Roy said the investment and partnership with Xiaomi will help the company to bring premium and digital entertainment to 100 million Indians before end of 2016. Citibank acted as exclusive financial advisor to Hungama on this transaction, the statement added.