PremiumNEW DELHI: Multiplex chain operator PVR Cinemas has tied up with business accelerator firm India Accelerator (IA) to mentor startups working in the media and entertainment space. As part of the partnership, both will jointly offer a sixteen-week long accelerator programme to a cohort of five to seven seed stage startups to cover areas such as ticket booking and movie viewing, along with supporting them with funding.
Selected startups will get access to PVR-IA’s technological and business infrastructure, mentoring, and network-building opportunities, culminating in a demo day attended by corporates, VCs, mentors and other partners, as well as external investors.
“There are lots of unidentified and unexplored gaps in the movie watching experience right from selecting the right show and ticket booking to watching the film and coming back. This is where innovative start-ups can bring changes by increasing efficiency in existing operations," Ashish Bhatia, founder and managing director, India Accelerator said in a statement.
The partnership is looking for startups working in the field of cinema or movie theatre-based gaming, events, classrooms, conference booking, planning, scheduling and delivering movie-based short videos and quizzes, gaming platforms to build engagement with actors, fans and communities, cinema-based shopping, in-video advertising and customer analytics, among others.
“Businesses need to pivot in these changing times. It’s more so for the media and entertainment sector. PVR, through the accelerator program, is in search of ideas or technologies which can improve and revolutionize the movie going experience, making it unique and friction-less," Kamal Gianchandani, chief strategy officer, PVR, said in a statement. “We need to add value to our capacity building along with optimizing our resources in these challenging times. Given the track record of India Accelerator in flourishing meaningful startups, we are looking forward to a strong positive outcome," he added.
The programme will see the appointment of one selection and execution board comprising representatives from both the parties which will be responsible for carrying work out for and managing timelines set for screening and sourcing, onboarding and acceleration of startups, mentoring board formation, ensuring they meet the pre-set growth milestones and marketing and promotion of the vertical, among others.
