Paragon Pictures Announces Pre Series A Funding from SALT Ventures and Inter Studio

Paragon Pictures today (22/6) announced the pre-series A funding from SALT Ventures and Inter Studio. The investment value is undisclosed. The production house is known operating under Ideosource Entertainment (part of NFC Indonesia and M Cash) which is also an early stage investor.

This additional capital will be focused on producing several new intellectual property (IP) in various forms, including live streaming content with GoPlay, animated children's videos, series for the OTT platform, and new feature films.

"Our vision is to produce local content in various formats with a unique and fresh perspective for the Indonesian people and globally," Paragon Pictures' CEO, Robert Ronny said.

Previously, the IP developer had published several content variants, including several films entitled "Losmen Bu Broto", "Backstage", the animation "Ini Budi", also the live streaming of JKT48 on GoPlay.

"The film industry is included in the pent-up demand industry, it means consumer demand for films by filmmakers, especially in Indonesia, will continue to boom after this pandemic ends," SALT Ventures' Managing Partner, Andika Sutoro Putra said.

Meanwhile, Kevin Sanjoto as Inter Studio's partner added, "In my observation, geographically, politically and culturally, Indonesia was born as a large and unique country, and has a variety of positive local wisdom spread across various regions. Based on those things, the current content ecosystem developing in Indonesia still has enormous opportunities and attractiveness to be able to grow massively."

In a general note, Inter Studio Group is a production house that has been operating for more than 50 years in Indonesia.

Ideosource Entertainment's CEO, Andi S. Boediman said, "Furthermore, this investment will open up opportunities to collaborate with Inter Studio in developing new films based on IP assets owned by Inter Studio."

Since 2018, Ideosource Entertainment has focused on investing in the Indonesian film industry and has been involved in funding various films such as "Keluarga Cemara", "Gundala", "Sobat Ambyar", and "Bebas". In addition, they have also invested in a number of digital platforms, including GoPlay and Cinepoint.

Regarding companies engaged in the IP sector, there is Visinema which previously invested by a venture capital. In series A led by Intudo Ventures, the company led by Angga Dwimas Sasongko managed to secure 45.5 billion Rupiah in funds.

Entering the same industry, IDN Media introduced IDN Pictures around mid-2020 by acquiring Demi Istri Production House.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian