Culture Machine raises funds

The video entertainment company has got Shishir Mehrotra, Dean Gilbert and Nickhil Jakatdar onto its board of advisors.

Culture Machine, the Asian digital video entertainment company, has raised its first round of funding from Zodius Capital. It has also roped in Shishir Mehrotra, former vice president, product, YouTube/Video at Google; Dean Gilbert, former VP and global head, content operations, YouTube and Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO, VuClip, to it's board of advisors.

A YouTube certified multi-channel network, Culture Machine helps digital video creators, brands and media companies reach out to their audiences and scale through powerful, creative and path-breaking digital content.

It allows creators across music, comedy, fashion/lifestyle and kids to help grow their channels and create great video programming using its production facilities in Mumbai and Chennai. Sameer Pitalwalla, CEO, Culture Machine, says, "Culture Machine's vision is to create and define great digital video entertainment for a native digital generation. In a world where there are thousands of hours of video content being uploaded every day - with a global audience, infinite tastes and infinite noise - our technology will help guide and scale our creatives to deliver powerful messages for our creators, advertisers and brands."

Venkat Prasad, COO/CTO, Culture Machine, says, "We are investing heavily in proprietary platforms that allow us to scale content creation, understand, engage with our audience 1:1 and help brands find the right audience." Gautam Patel, managing director, Zodius Capital, says, "We are confident we have backed the best team in the business where Culture Machine has the first-mover-advantage in building a world-class next generation digital media company."

Some of its viral works include 'Every Delhi Girl in the World', 'India's Facebook Timeline', 'She called my Bhaiyya', the spoof/parody Baby Deol, Gore Gote, Sonam Kapoor's Selfie Song among many others.

Culture Machine's network includes India's popular YouTube stars such as, BeingIndian, Gaurav Dagaonkar, Hanu Dixit, Shruti Anand, Sonal Sagarya, Elton Fernandez and Bollywood Gandu. It also has India's top media brands, including Fox Star Studios, Germany's C Major, Norway's Earth Three Media, the American stand-up comedy network, ComedyTime, The Times of India and Bombay Times.

Co-founded by Pitalwalla (an ex-Disney India hand) and Prasad (who was with Google/YouTube), Culture Machine uses its proprietary technology media platform to understand the demand of the digital consumer, and help develop riveting, engaging and shareable video content across digital video platforms.