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.
