Wishberry, India’s largest crowd funding platform for filmmakers and creative artists has secured an amount of Rs 10 crores in Series A funding round. The particular funding round was led by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment and 3one4 Capital.
Dr. Sunil Patil, Director on the Board of Scrabble Entertainment Ltd also participated in the following funding round.
The company is planning to utilize the funds so raised for the expansion of the employee base and make the team bigger. A part of the funds will also be used to bring in experienced talent in the film production & distribution segment.
Shibasish Sarkar, COO, Reliance Big Entertainment said, “Low budget cinema, has a good opportunity to be monetized with the right strategy. Wishberry’s plan to organize funding and distribution for such cinema is the need of the hour.”
As of now, the company has raised over Rs 5 crore for four feature movies from a clutch of HNIs. These films were:
– CHUSKIT (Ladakhi Film)
– 1 MISSED CALL (Marathi Film)
– CHIPPA (Hindi Film)
– SETHUM AAYIRAM PON (Tamil Film)
Wishberry’s founders Priyanka Agarwal and Anshulika Dubey have an aim to encourage low-budget cinema through the introduction of a film financing platform Wishberryfilms.in. This platform will be helpful for the High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs) in finding out and investing in low budget regional and content-driven cinema, in return for a share in the profits of the film.
However, the company will continue with its very own “Kickstarter-style” rewards-based crowd funding platform. This platform is based on fan funding for creative projects that include short films, music videos and documentaries, in exchange for non-monetary returns. These returns include exclusive first access to the projects, invite to the premieres, dinner with cast/crew etc.
The other players that Wishberry competes with are IgniteIntent, Ketto, BitGiving, Crowdera, Milaap and FundMyPitch.