What Led IAN To Fund This Bengaluru-Based Kid Startup This kid's startup is a one-stop-shop for videos, games, photographs, gifts, and toys for both education and learning.
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Indian Angel Network (IAN) has invested Rs 3 crore in Bengaluru-based TOKO Innovation Studios, who are creating a digital destination for children that can be viewed on mobile and web browsers.
Roopak Saluja, Founder and CEO of The 120 Media Collective and new media company, Sooperfly, and Vishal Khare have led this round on behalf of IAN. Startup plans to utilize this investment for the product development, user growth and content partnerships.
Moreover, Roopak Saluja will be joining the company's board. This round has been co-led by Rajasthan Angel Investor Network, who will be represented on the board by Ajay Data.
Commenting on the investment, Roopak Saluja, Lead IAN investor said, "The children's content space is a universe in itself, and with licensing, merchandising and toys, a large and lucrative one at that. With the proliferation of devices and increase in bandwidth, the power of choice is shifting to children and parents. Now is the right time for a localised kids content platform. We're backing the TOKO team because we have conviction in their vision and execution ability and are excited about the opportunity to help them succeed".
Founded in February 2014 by Aditya Mukherjee, Arnav Mukherjee and Ajitsen Surendran, TOKO's aims to become a leading player in the entertainment space focusing on children.
"We realized that children's entertainment in India is still at a very nascent stage – so there is a huge market gap to be filled. With TOKO, we aim to create a platform and a collaborative ecosystem that will revolutionize Indian children's entertainment," said Aditya Mukherjee, Founder, TOKO Innovation Studios.
With an idea of making toys and games that are connected to stories, TOKO is targeting the Indian market with the aim of expanding across emerging markets globally, including a strong focus on Asia.
"TOKO is operating in an interesting and largely unexplored space of curated web content for kids. We see a huge potential for growth in this space and are very excited about the kind of plans team has," said Vishal Khare, Lead IAN investor.
The current transition from a text-based internet to an audio-visual internet is creating hundreds of millions of new and active users and there is tremendous whitespace for children-focused companies to be formed based on this transition.
