DWTCA, Eros Investments ink partnership to develop Web 3 ecosystem

Kishore Lulla, chairman, Eros Investments. — Supplied photo

Xfinite becomes first media-entertainment distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform to enter Dubai’s regulated virtual asset regime.

Eros Investments, a leading global media, entertainment and technology portfolio of ventures, announced a strategic partnership with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTCA) to operate under the world’s only specialist Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), and enable growth of the worldwide Web 3.0 industry and associated blockchain businesses from Dubai.

Eros Investments is a venture with assets in media, sports, blockchain, digital commerce and gaming. Its portfolio companies include Eros Media World, Eros Now, Xfinite’s Mzaalo, EXR, and Eros Innovations.

The partnership agreement includes Eros Investments launch of a specialised mega-accelerator fund to enable 100+ startups and SMEs across blockchain and Web 3.0 by 2025 in DWTCA,with global industry-shapers and home-grown anchors in ICT and Content distribution; Eros’ investee portfolio and all affliates to seek to be VARA licensed and operate the first-of-its kind ‘fully regulated, decentralised DLT platform’ for the global Media, Art and Entertainment industry, from Dubai; Xfinite is a flagship ‘watch-to-earn’ closed loop platform with XET and NFT marketplace to join a rigourously vetted shortlist of international participants in the VARA MVP programme, and build towards the mass market Virtual Asset Exchange (VAX) License; and VARA to engage Eros in building secure IP guardrails to foster fair creative industry participation, scaling direct connectivity between global talent, content aggregators, and the audience.

Swaneet Singh, CEO, Xfinite.

Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of DWTCA, said: “Dubai’s VARA is commited to building a secure and progressive market environment that can deliver a ‘technology and sector agnostic’ future economy. We are already witnessing the mass proliferation of blockchain, and the accelerated migration to Web 3.0 — one that we are here to nurture, strengthen and sustain. We find in Eros, strong alignment in objectives to create a decentralised framework for the creative, lifestyle and media industries, and are looking forward to partnering with their global value chain partners to design scalable models for the metaverse.”

Blockchain and crypto has seen an exponential growth specifically through the pandemic, estimated to be at over 300 million users globally at the end of 2021. Dubai’s enablement of the VARA was the first step towards pioneering a global wave of Web 3.0 and virtual asset adoption that is designed to offer global interoperability in alignment with international best-in-class industry regulatory standards.

Licensing Eros to participate in the VARA ecosystem is particularly reflective of the city’s objective to build an ecosystem that supports decentralised and autonomous new economy growth — across creative, technology, media, art, and entertainment. Eros Investment’s founding vision to deliver opportunities for quality startups to connect with the industry participants and take their content direct to market, will be enabled through a network of strategic global leaders that are equally invested in co-creating such a benchmark model for the world. It also allows for the mass adoption of crypto into everyday use and grow to billions of users globally.

“Eros is in advanced stages of readiness to launch a revolutionary multi-verse experience that bridges the physical and virtual world in a uniquely relatable way, for all ages and cultures. I am excited by the prospect of creating an open stage for the world to witness ‘first-hand’ the same multi-cultural dynamism of the metaverse through the lens of the city of Dubai in the real world. Last week’s opening of the VARA MetaHQ has already seen growing interest from our industry partners to participate in this environment with us, so we collectively build the future of our industry together with Dubai,” said Kishore Lulla, chairman, Eros Investments.

London based Omdia reported in its ‘Online Video Trends & Consumer Research’ for India — Eros Now ranked at #2 only behind Disney+’ Hotstar and ahead of Amazon Prime Video & Netflix in India. Eros Now was the first SVOD product in India and with it’s expertise of content and technology led the mass adoption of digital video across subscribers. According to a Gartner report, by 2030 blockchain will be the foundational technology to 30 per cent of global customers with a $3.1 trillion economy.