Emerald Media Takes Stake in India’s Cosmos-Maya

Emerald Media, a pan-Asian company backed by global investment firm KKR, has acquired a controlling stake in Cosmos-Maya, which creates original Indian animated kids’ content.

Founded by Ketan Mehta, Cosmos-Maya is the market leader in the creation of IP-led Indian animation content for children. The capital from this investment will help the company with strategic growth initiatives and creating global intellectual property to expand its presence around the world.

Cosmos-Maya has multiple ongoing productions with major television and digital platforms, including Viacom18, Disney Networks, Turner International, Sony Pictures Network, Discovery Networks, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and ALT Balaji. The company has a number of TV shows on air such as Shiva, Eena Meena Deeka, Kisna, ViR—The Robot Boy, Guru Aur Bhole, Chacha Bhatija, Tik Tak Tail and Selfie with Bajrangi, and is working on three international co-pros: Captain Cactus, Atchoo! and Help Me Ganesha. It also has its own YouTube channel called WowKidz, which launched in 2016.

Mehta, managing director of Cosmos-Maya, commented: “The vision for Cosmos-Maya has always been to become a cutting-edge media technology company creating quality Indian content for the global market. The company will benefit greatly with a partner like Emerald Media, which has a strong understanding of the entertainment, broadcast and OTT space. Through the capital infused, the company intends to develop international projects while leveraging the media relationships of Emerald to expand its global footprint.”

Rajesh Kamat, the managing director of Emerald Media, stated: “Cosmos-Maya has created and owns the content for some of the most popular kids’ shows and hence has its finger on the pulse of a very captive and influential audience. With the company now focused on the development of content that crosses geographies, it is poised for growth on a global stage—not to mention the added opportunity of brand expansion and merchandising for its properties. This investment is a great addition to Emerald Media’s growing portfolio as it aligns with our vision of creating an ecosystem that caters to audiences of all age groups.”

Paul Aiello, the managing director of Emerald Media, noted: “Cosmos-Maya has made great strides in the animation space in the past few years. Their original shows have been huge successes and have paved the way for original Indian content to compete on a global platform. This investment will help Cosmos-Maya achieve its exciting growth potential.”

Anish Mehta, the CEO of Cosmos-Maya, added: “With its successful and sizeable IP bank, strong business associations, a passionate team and the constant quest for quality—combined with the capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth that Emerald Media brings on board—Cosmos-Maya is now poised for a global 360-degree approach to grow and monetize its brands through content, media, marketing, distribution, licensing and retail to markets, for kids across the world.”