NV Capital, an Indian media and entertainment credit fund, plans to organise virtual roadshows to tap investors across the UAE for raising AED246 million ($67 million) corpus.

Given the active involvement of Indian diaspora investing across various equity and debt instruments in India, as well as exploring new alternative asset classes, NV Capital is looking forward to raising funds from high networth individuals (HNIs), NRI investors, family offices and financial institutions based out of UAE to participate in the growth story of this sunrise sector, according to Trade Arabia.

The fund recently received a nod from Indian markets regulator SEBI as Category II Alternative Investment Fund.

Founded by industry professionals and ex-bankers Nitin and Vivek Menon, NV Capital was also India’s first credit fund focused on the media and entertainment sector with the objective of investing in content creators, OTT platforms, gaming and entertainment start-ups, Trade Arabia reported.

With the rapid rise of Category II credit funds in India over the last few years, NV Capital said it was looking to establish a new alternative asset class in the media and entertainment space.

The key sponsor of NV Capital is Jayantilal Gada, CMD of Pen Studios, an industry veteran with over 35 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry.

Pen is a leading integrated studio with presence in Indian film production, distribution, movie aggregation, broadcasting, digital media, visual effects and animation.

On the plans, Vivek Menon, the co-founder and managing partner, NV Capital, said: “It is a proud moment for us to launch India’s first media and entertainment credit fund which is on the cusp of exponential growth. Given the rise of UAE as a preferred destination for global FPIs, it is eminent for the country to become the gateway of new age sectoral funding to countries like India.”

“At the same time, owing to cultural similarities, a large expat population of Indian origin and sustained tie-ups with Indian media and entertainment industry, UAE remains a key market for garnering funds for pioneering offering,” he noted.

With close to 1,500 movies being released every year, combined with the rapid rise of multiple OTT platforms, which showcased 180+ web series and 80+ direct to OTT films launches in Hindi language alone since last year, the value of content has been growing exponentially.

“This trend highlights the scope and enormous opportunity in entertainment financing where content creators are in constant dearth of capital to scale up,” he added.

Trade Arabia is a Bahrain-based online business news and information portal covering various trade and industry sectors in the Persian Gulf region, Middle East and the Levant