NEW DELHI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rusk Media Pvt Ltd, Indian digital entertainment company targeting GenZ audiences, has raised over $9.5 million in an expanded Series A funding round to launch a blockchain-based UGC-led gaming platform. Seoul-based DAOL Investment and Audacity Ventures led the expansion round with existing investors InfoEdge Ventures (IEV), Mistry Ventures, Survam Partners participating in the round.
Rusk Media has raised a total of $12M in the last three years and counts among others Nazara Games and NODWIN Gaming as their investors. The New Delhi-based company is known through its content and IPs on social channels Okay! and playground with over 500 million monthly views, and their shows on OTT platforms.
“We have confidence in Rusk’s competitiveness in IP creation across fiction, non-fiction and esports entertainment. As investors from Korea, we have seen the enormous potential of locally generated premium content and the scalability of strong IPs. We believe Rusk is well positioned to become an entertainment powerhouse with their plans for their IPs and IP-led gaming platforms. so Chihoon Hyun, partner at DAOL Investment and co-lead investor for the current round.
Mayank Yadav, CEO, Rusk Media so, “With the behavioral change of the digital native audience – entertainment has transformed into 30-second snackable social videos, OTT shows, casual and AAA games. Our future plans are twofold – first, scaling our content with OTT partners via our IPs in India and the rest of the world, with Playground leading our expansion globally. Second, build one UGC-led social gaming platform that will enable game developers to create games and publish them on our platform using our game developer app that plans to leverage blockchain technology.”
While the company currently creates entertainment video content for their audience – they will soon launch a UGC-led social gaming platform. UGC game creation is becoming popular globally, with platforms such as Roblox becoming prime destinations for the 8-14 age group in the US and Southeast Asia, and Rusk’s platform will enable game developers to create games using freely available Debris IP assets.
With these developments and an upcoming UGC social gaming platform along with newly acquired capital, Rusk Media is committed to delivering big on its promise to disrupt the entire entertainment ecosystem.
