Streaming Veteran Viniit Mehta Floats $10 Mn Fund To Back Media & Gaming Startups

Drawing on his wealth of experience in the entertainment space, former Brightcove country head Viniit Mehta has floated a new fund to capitalise on India’s growing “attention economy”.

Pressplay Capital, founded by Viniit and Devang Mehta, has kicked off plans to raise $10 Mn for its maiden fund to back startups in sectors such as gaming, adtech, media tech, and sports tech.

“We started raising funds about a month back. Commitments are coming in fairly quickly, so we are confident of going ahead with this,” Viniit told Inc42.

The UAE-based fund is in the process of getting the regulatory approvals, but the VC firm plans to mark the first close of the fund by August-September 2025.

“We are in the process of forming a (fund) structure (in the UAE),” Devang said.

The VC firm has begun zeroing in on startups and plans to finalise three potential investments in the coming weeks. “We are close to making a few investments—one gaming startup in the Middle East, one potential sports tech startup in India, and a potential sports tech startup in the US,” Viniit said.

These deals are being structured as “warehousing” investments, a standard practice for nascent funds still finalising regulatory requirements. Under this structure, a VC deploys the capital via a parallel entity with the explicit intention of transferring these investments into the primary fund once its formation is complete.

“As you file for a fund formation, the process takes a little bit of time. At the outset, funds invest in startups through some parallel vehicle, usually an LLC or a private limited, and then once the fund is fully set up, these investments are moved into the fund,” Devang explained.

Focus On India & Middle East

Pressplay Capital plans to invest 40% of its fund in Middle Eastern startups, 40% in Indian new-age tech companies, and 20% in other geographies, primarily the US. It will focus on seed and pre-Series A companies with a minimum revenue of $250K.

The fund will invest approximately $300K in 15 startups initially, with plans to double down on the top five performing companies.

The venture is specifically targeting companies operating in, what it calls, the “GAMES” sectors—an acronym for gaming, adtech, mediatech, entertainment, and sports tech. According to Viniit, these sectors represent about a $15 Bn economy across the Middle East and India combined.

Viniit believes that these sectors are more recession-resistant than others. “They are largely recession-proof because people like to consume content and watch sports in most economic circumstances. And there’s a lot of innovation that is enabling the growth of startups in these areas.”

Devang, who simultaneously serves as a venture partner at Anthill Ventures, pointed to gaps in the startup ecosystem.

“Startups, especially from India, are very engineering heavy, which means they have the technical capability but aren’t necessarily business savvy to build unicorns and larger companies,” Devang said.

What’s Pressplay Capital’s USP?

Entering a crowded VC landscape, Pressplay Capital believes its niche focus on media, sports, and gaming technologies sectors – where Viniit has operational experience – will help it stand out.

“There are not many VCs that dedicate themselves to media tech. We are among the few, if not the only, funds focussing on these areas at the seed and pre-Series A stage,” Devang said.

Before launching Pressplay Capital, Viniit led streaming technology provider Brightcove’s India operations from 2017 to 2021, helping media companies build streaming platforms. He moved to Dubai in 2022 to work with Endeavor Streaming, which enables sports organisations to deploy streaming infrastructure.

Nevertheless, the fund has lined up a long list of criteria to zero in on potential investments and maximise its returns. Devang said that the fund’s key criteria for potential portfolio companies will revolve around emphasising strong revenue fundamentals over growth at all costs.

“We don’t want somebody that streams 5% faster or does something 10% slower. We are looking for highly innovative entrepreneurs that have done something that is differentiated and trailblazing,” he said.

Chiming in, Viniit also noted that the fund will look to back startups that have teams with relevant experience or track record in their respective fields. “The market size that founders are going after needs to be large enough,” he emphasised.

At the heart of this push is India’s growing digital economy, which is reportedly projected to on the back of growing internet and smartphone penetration. The Union government’s data suggests that the homegrown digital economy accounted for 11.74% of the national income in FY23 and is .

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