Future Ventures Acquires Majority Stake In ACK Media

Future Ventures has upped its stake in ACK Media, the company that owns the mythological content business Amar Chitra Katha, along with other children focussed ventures, from 26% to 56%, making it a subsidiary company, reports VC Circle. In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange, Future Ventures informed that it has acquired 1,41,459 additional equity shares from the existing promoters of Amar Chitra Katha Private Limited, representing 30% of its share capital.

Previously, ACK Media had raised Rs 37 crore from Future Ventures, in a funding round in April, with participation from Elephant Capital, an existing investor, which had also made a follow on investment of Rs 6.5 crore. Elephant Capital’s stake in the company stands at 26.1%.

Last week, ACK Media and Future Group had announced ‘Amar Chitra Katha Scholarships’, in memory of late Anant Pai, the founding editor of the series. The Scholarship was launched in 70+cities, open to children between the ages of 10-15, for which forms have been made available at Future Group’s Big Bazaar store outlets and online.

Future Plans

After the last investment round, it was indicated that the company intended to enter the theme park business, and there were reports that it was considering the launch of a Disneyland like theme park in Chennai, investing Rs.35-40 crore. There has been no official confirmation on that. There had been reports about the group’s plans to launch a tv channel, as well.

However, according to Elephant Capital’s interim annual report, one of ACK Media’s focus areas is to develop its “Family Entertainment Centres”, which are activity centres based in shopping malls, where children can experience multiple aspects of the ACK product in one place, delivering “larger-than-life” experiences, which will in turn create demand. The other focus areas include creating new content and merchandise, and expanding its e-commerce (direct to consumer and indirect channels) business. The report also mentions that Future Group’s network of stores, malls, management expertise, and brand building skills, should prove a valuable resource to ACK, in the future.

Founded in 2007, ACK has a catalogue of over 750 print and 100 digital products, and 25 proprietary characters, with brands including “Amar Chitra Katha”, which has around 450 titles; “Tinkle”, a children’s magazine with 500 issues and a circulation of around 125,000 per month; Karadi Tales, an acquisition in the audio and video content for pre-school children space, with over 50 titles. ACK has been looking to expand its content to TV, Film, Home Video,Merchandise and school programmes, and has studios in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai that develop new content.