MUMBAI: Entertainment Network India Limited (Mirchi) has acquired a significant minority stake inSpardha – a music e-learning startup. This is ENIL’s first external investment and with this move the company is signaling its interest in strategic investments to build shareholder value in the long term, and also beef up Mirchi’s own digital transformation as a mobile-first entertainment brand. 

Founded in 2020, Spardha, is a platform that caters to individuals with specific learning demands and aims to reinvent the music learning space by addressing problems in music education. Spardha’s unique proposition offers three different types of courses– beginners starting at an early age, music enthusiasts across age groups, and individuals pursuing music as a career. The platform not only focuses on curating an extensive curriculum and onboarding certified trainers for the students but also provides them with a seamless virtual classroom experience. 

Commenting on this investment, Yatish Mehrishi, CEO, ENIL, said, “Over the past two decades, Mirchi has become synonymous with best-in-class music and entertainment. Even as we transform into a mobile-first entertainment brand and are busy building out our Mirchi Plus app engine, we are keen to explore a number of new areas. We can build those in-house, or we can invest outside. E-learning was one such space, that we were interested in building from a D2C standpoint, but it was best that we invest in a sector leader like Spardha, rather than build inside ENIL.  

Saurabh Srivastav, founder director & CEO of Spardhasaid, “I feel thrilled about this new partnership with ENIL. We at Spardha strongly believe that there are multiple opportunities where Spardha & Mirchi can collaborate in the common interest of helping Spardha grow faster & improve its brand visibility in the market. Mirchi has a strong presence in many international markets where Spardha is focusing on for the next level of growth. Mirchi’s strong presence in these markets will help Spardha optimize its branding & marketing strategies to penetrate deeper into those international markets at a faster pace. Spardha looks to gain from Mirchi’s prowess in building strong consumer facing brands, its deep engagement with the film & music industry as well as its ad-revenue and B2B sales ecosystem. 

On behalf of Team Spardha, I would like to thank ENIL management for their investment in Spardha. Looking forward to an exciting & successful partnership with Mirchi.