The Mumbai-based platform, founded by Vishal Mahajan, Founder
and Chief Executive Officer, Auraska Ventures, along with Stuti Shetty, Chief
Business Officer, Auraska Ventures, combines a ₹500 crore Category II AIF, a
USD 3Bn+ advisory team’s track record, and active ventures in celebrity digital
rights, legal tech, and consumer IP—betting that India’s soft power is its most
under-capitalised opportunity.
Mumbai, April 16, 2026: Auraska Ventures Pvt Ltd today announced its launch as a new-age
alternate investments and strategic advisory platform designed to invest in,
advise, and build businesses across India’s cultural economy — spanning media,
entertainment, sports, gaming, fashion, content IP, and celebrity-driven
consumer brands.
The platform brings together three integrated businesses: a
strategic advisory practice with a leadership track record of over USD 3
billion in transactions; the Auraska Opportunities Fund, a planned ₹500 crore
SEBI-registered Category II AIF; and an active venture-building arm currently
incubating businesses in celebrity digital rights protection, legal tech, and
consumer IP-driven brands.
Auraska is led by Vishal Mahajan, Founder and CEO, who brings 27
years of experience in alternate investments and investment banking, closing over
USD 2 billion in deals including pioneering M&A transactions and
investments in the Consumer sectors including ORRA diamonds and Kisankonnect
e-grocery. He has been a founding team member at YES Bank Investment Banking,
EY across Mumbai/New York and focuses on new-age businesses.
The CBO of Auraska Ventures, Stuti Shetty, has a background in
legal studies in England & Wales. Being recognized as a dynamic young
leader, Stuti has built strong expertise in client relationship management
across sectors. She has successfully cultivated relationships with
High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNIs) across the UAE, India and the UK.
Auraska’s launch comes at a moment when India’s cultural and
creative economy is receiving unprecedented policy attention, institutional interest,
and global recognition. India’s media and entertainment sector reached ₹2.5
trillion in 2024 and is projected to cross ₹3 trillion by 2027. The online
gaming sector is growing at 28% CAGR, projected to reach ₹33,243 crore by FY28.
Between 2 to 2.5 million digital creators now influence over ₹29.6 lakh crore
in annual consumer spending. India’s esports sector has collectively raised
$825 million, with over 200 active companies.
The Union Budget 2026-27 formally recognised the ‘Orange
Economy’ as a national growth priority, announcing AVGC Content Creator Labs in
15,000 schools and 500 colleges. Meanwhile, India’s AIF industry has crossed
₹15.7 trillion in commitments, growing at nearly 30% CAGR over five years.
Indian family offices have pushed alternative allocations past 40% — the
highest in Asia-Pacific. Yet there is virtually no dedicated institutional
capital vehicle designed to back the sectors where India’s cultural influence
is generating the most global traction.
The Auraska Platform: Three Businesses, One Conviction
Strategic Advisory. Auraska’s
advisory platform operates across deal advisory, M&A, fundraising, and
cross-border strategic partnerships in consumer, media, sports, gaming, real
estate, healthcare and IP businesses. The leadership team has collectively
advised on over USD 3 billion in transactions.
Auraska Opportunities Fund. A planned ₹500 crore SEBI-registered Category II AIF, investing
in 10–15 companies from seed to Series B across consumer, media, sports,
gaming, fashion, and IP businesses. The fund blends equity with select
high-yield debt opportunities. The LP base HNIs, celebrities, sports
personalities, family offices, and corporates — creates a model where investors
also serve as cultural amplifiers for portfolio companies.
Venture Building. Auraska
is actively incubating businesses in celebrity digital rights protection and
monetisation in an AI content world, legal tech solutions for the Indian legal
services industry, and consumer IP-driven brands. The celebrity digital rights
venture is particularly timely: India’s IT Amendment Rules 2026 mandate 3-hour
takedowns of AI-generated deepfake content, and landmark lawsuits by prominent
Indian celebrities have established judicial precedent around personality
rights in the AI age.
The three businesses are designed as a self-reinforcing
flywheel. Advisory relationships generate proprietary deal flow for the fund.
Fund investments create advisory mandates. Venture building gives the team
operator-level insight into the sectors they invest in.
Speaking on the launch, Vishal Mahajan, Founder and Chief
Executive Officer, Auraska Ventures, said: “India’s cultural economy — its
media, entertainment, sports, gaming, and creator ecosystem — is generating
global influence at a scale that has no precedent. The government’s recognition
of the Orange Economy, the regulatory clarity around gaming and digital rights,
and the sheer demographic energy of the country’s creative sectors have created
an investable opportunity that is both timely and structural. Yet institutional
capital has been largely absent from these sectors. Auraska is built to change
that. We are not just launching a fund. We are building a platform that
combines advisory, investing, and venture building into one integrated model,
because these sectors reward operators who understand the ecosystem, not just
financiers who deploy capital from a distance.”
Commenting on the launch, Stuti Shetty, CBO, Auraska Ventures,
said: “India is at an inflection point in the orange economy and Auraska
Ventures is well placed to capitalize on the emerging opportunities. A key
differentiator for Auraska is the strength and depth of its HNI relationships.
Our investor base is not just capital, it is influence, access, and strategic
value. By bringing together HNIs, celebrities, sports personalities, and family
offices, we are building a network where investors actively participate in
shaping outcomes for portfolio companies. This creates a powerful alignment
between capital and culture, enabling founders to scale not just with funding,
but with visibility, credibility, and market access.”
With its launch, Auraska Ventures becomes one of the few
platforms in India to operate across strategic advisory, institutional fund
management, and venture building as an integrated model — and the first to do
so with a singular focus on the country’s cultural economy. As India’s soft
power continues to gain global recognition and domestic policy support, Auraska
is positioning itself to be the institutional capital partner of choice for the
businesses and entrepreneurs shaping this economy.
Auraska’s stated long-term ambition is to deploy over a billion
dollars across multiple investment vehicles over the coming decade.
Auraska is backed by a stellar advisory board which includes,
Mr. Ameet B. Naik, founder of Naik Naik & Co., Mr. Rajaram Ajgaonkar,
founder of R.M. Ajgaonkar & Co; Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti, a sustainability
leader and Mr. Ramesh Jude Thomas, founder of EQUiTOR.
About Auraska Ventures
Auraska is a new-age alternate investments and strategic
advisory platform backed by influential business families with over two decades
of investing experience.
Positioned at the intersection of capital and culture, Auraska
is the first platform to build an integrated investment model focused on
India’s rapidly expanding media, entertainment, gaming, sports, fashion, and
creator economy—collectively emerging as a multi-trillion-rupee opportunity and
a national priority.
Auraska operates across three core pillars—strategic advisory,
institutional investing, and venture building—creating a unique capital
flywheel that enables proprietary deal flow, strategic partnerships, and
long-term value creation.
Auraska Ventures is shortly launching India’s first Orange
Economy dedicated ₹500 crore Category II AIF to unleash the soft power of
India. India is at an inflection point in the Orange Economy—as evidenced by
recent high-return deals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Shraddha
Kapoor’s investment in Palmonas. Auraska is uniquely positioned to capitalize
on this multi-decade opportunity leveraging its deep expertise and strong
ecosystem relationships, with an ambition to invest over $1 billion across
multiple investment vehicles over the coming decade.
With over 75 years of combined leadership experience and more
than 50 deals closed, Auraska Ventures is positioned as a trusted partner for
investors and founders, leveraging its expertise in complex deal structuring,
regulatory frameworks, and global investor networks. The firm aims to
institutionalize capital deployment while supporting the growth and scale of
next-generation businesses in India.