Ad man Sajan Raj Kurup acquires Rolling Stone India, Man’s World India publisher

Mumbai-based venture capital company, Ventureland Asia Advisory Services owned by ad man Sajan Raj Kurup on Monday announced that it has acquired the controlling stake in MW.Com India Pvt Ltd, the publisher of magazines like Rolling Stone India and MW (Man's World). MW.Com Pvt Ltd (MCPL) was till recently owned by the publishing company, Spenta Multimedia Pvt Ltd. 

MCPL has published Rolling Stone India, the Indian edition of music and pop culture magazine Rolling Stone, since 2008. MW, which is in its 21st year, is a men's lifestyle magazine. 

 Ventureland Asia plans to use its presence in areas of marketing, brand building, visual communications, and new-age technology to chart a digital-oriented growth strategy for Rolling Stone India and MW, the company said in a statement. 

Earlier this year, Ventureland Asia had acquired a 40% stake in gaming company Revenant Esports. It had also announced the launch of Saintfarm, an end-to-end e-commerce venture in organic and sustainable food. So far, the fund has invested in media, e-commerce, education, healthcare, agri-tech and esports – with technology innovations as the common investing theme. 

 “Rolling Stone India and Man’s World enjoy high levels of credibility and loyalty among its target audience. Piggybacking on that, we will bring in advanced tech interventions, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to better understand the reader and transform the hardcopy publishing to an omnichannel digital-first magazine,” Kurup, creator-investor and founder, Ventureland Asia, the investment arm of Creativeland Asia, said in a statement. 

Radhakrishnan Nair, publisher and editor-in-chief, Rolling Stone India and MW said Ventureland Asia's acquisition of MCPL comes amidst the major churning that is happening on the Indian media landscape. “Ventureland Asia founder Kurup's investment expertise in digital technology and marketing acumen will be crucial as Rolling Stone India and MW work towards transforming into platform agnostic magazines, with a strong presence in the digital sphere and print,” Nair said in a statement.