JetSynthesys buys majority stake in Fanory, ropes in ex-Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari as president

Fanory is a creator monetisation startup. (Representative image)

Digital entertainment and technology firm JetSynthesys has acquired a majority stake in Fanory, a creator monetisation startup co-founded by former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari.

Fanory, which was in stealth mode until now, enables creators to connect with their superfans through a personalised app.

Creators can sell premium content and experiences through a coin-based payment mechanism within the app. Maheshwari told Moneycontrol that he started this venture with two of his former colleagues about three months back. The names of other co-founders are yet to be disclosed.

Maheshwari will focus on the global expansion of Fanory that will work closely with the digital entertainment vertical of JetSynthesys.

"We are looking forward to expanding our horizons in the digital entertainment space. The social media creators market has grown exponentially, and we see this continuing for the foreseeable future. Fanory's model is beneficial for creators. It compensates them for their hard work and creativity," said JetSynthesys founder Rajan Navani.

"With Manish by our side, we look forward to exploring this new avenue and entrenching ourselves deeper into the digital entertainment realm," he said.

As part of this transaction, Maheshwari will also join JetSynthesys's senior leadership team as president.

"While he (Maheshwari) will primarily drive the growth of Fanory, given his experience with larger media platforms, we are looking at how he can also add value to many of our other verticals, but more importantly, the influencer ecosystems that we have in each of our different areas," Navani said.

Maheshwari left Twitter in January 2022 after a stint of nearly three years. In this role, he oversaw the social media firm's business in India and subsequently in new markets worldwide based out of Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco.

He later co-founded edtech firm Invact Metaversity with former Microsoft executive Tanay Pratap but left the company within six months in May 2022, following differences over the future vision for the startup.

Prior to Twitter, Maheshwari served as the CEO-Digital of Network18 for three years. Before that, he was heading Flipkart’s seller ecosystem. He has also previously held leadership positions at Intuit and McKinsey.

JetSynthesys, which counts Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla, and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar among its backers, currently operates a portfolio of products and services across three key verticals - gaming and esports, digital entertainment, and wellness and livelihoods. It claims to have millions of consumers across 180 countries.

The company's digital entertainment portfolio includes short-form mobile video platform Wakau, digital distribution unit Global Music Junction, and a joint venture with Sachin Tendulkar called 100MB, besides a range of enterprise products wherein it operates streaming platforms in international markets such as Yesflix, Channel Fight, and Matas.

JetSynthesys is also the official India partner for Warner Music for all things related to music label licensing and acquisition, artist management, event management, original content creation across music, short videos and films.