WATCH: Bootstrapped Denture Capital earns more than Rs 1Cr in 3 months by building original video content for startups

The name 'Denture Capital' is a word play on the one thing most essential for the growth of startups - venture capital. And that is what this Bengaluru-based startup hopes to do too - help grow startups. Its tool is video content – but not your run-of-the-mill marketing ones. Rather, these videos are explanatory for B2B and B2C startups.

Founded by two mechanical engineering graduates from NIT Manu Srikumar and Pranav Chimulkar in 2016, Denture Capital originally started as a YouTube show on startups. Three years later, it has evolved into an agency on its own. Its team of 25 now provides brands with explainer videos, brand films, videos for internal use in companies, animation films, etc.

Denture Capital boasts of a clientele that includes more than 100 companies like WeWork, Locus, Ninjacart, and Go-Jek, among others.

Watch Denture Capital founders Manu Srikumar and Pranav Chimulkar in conversation with YourStory here:

With an average budget of Rs 5 lakh, Denture Capital claims to serve best video/digital film content (not TVC) for brands to use on Facebook, YouTube, etc. These videos often include FAQs besides product descriptions and customer testimonials. Denture Capital is also working on original fiction content. In fact, its documentary on Silicon Valley, named Rift in the Valley, was picked by Amazon Prime.

In FY19, the startup crossed Rs 1 crore in its revenue and is targeting Rs 4 crore for FY20. Manu claims that in the first quarter itself (the last three months), the company’s revenue has crossed Rs 1 crore.

Passion for creativity

Although a mechanical engineer from one of the most reputed institutes in the country, Manu was more inclined towards creative work. He recollects how fascinated he was with video making with his handycam camcorder during his engineering days too. 

Manu took to marketing after a year and a half of working as an engineer at Wipro. He then worked at Reebok in Bengaluru, followed by many startups, including one in Spain. One of the startups he worked with - Doctors’ Circle - is a video healthcare platform.

In 2009, Manu became a ‘vlogger’ at a time ‘vlogging’ was not really popular. He began documenting his travel shoots and photos, confessing that this was done for passion. In 2016, he started taking it a bit more seriously and decided to launch it as a business venture. There weren’t many high-quality video content around startups at the time. As an experiment, he started creating original content on his YouTube channel.

The first year passed without revenue, but Manu says he got the idea of the market and what their model can be. His inspiration was the US-based company Sandwich Video.

Later that year, Pranav - who was earlier with JSW Steel, and a couple of startups - joined Denture Capital as a co-founder. His earlier company, Confirmtikt, was among Manu’s clients. With an investment of Rs 10 lakh from the duo’s savings, Denture Capital was officially registered in 2017.

The founders claim that revenue generation began within a couple of months, and the startup generated about Rs 40 lakh in FY18. Manu says that Denture Capital has been profitable since.

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Making a mark

With a bunch of 20-somethings trained in editing and writing from film schools, Denture Capital ensures differentiation in its content and presentation. One of its early campaigns was with Go-Jek – where CTO Niranjan Paranjape was riding a bike and talking about how he loves bikes and coding, and telling the audience about working at Go-Jek.

With word of mouth and Facebook presence, Denture Capital started getting more work, Manu recalls. “We did not even have a website until a year ago. But we create rebelliously endearing video content for doer audiences,” he tells YourStory. The team also collaborates with experts in production, distribution, and writing, so as to make the best of different perspectives and bring in different skill sets.

More startups are coming up in the video content space now like Mumbai-based Supari Studios and Hyderabad-based Raasta Studios. But the market is huge and the global content marketing industry is expected to be worth $412 billion by 2021.

Manu says, “In the last five years, we have seen a lot of advertising move to content. These are not just 10-seconds clips anymore; advertising is now embedded in long-form content as well. Once a YouTube channel has a certain number of followers, many brands are happy to pay them for sponsored content.”

Add to this, brands are even sponsoring whole series now - Kota Factory series on TVF by Unacademy being one. Players like FilterCopy are also active in the space. “In distribution too, there is a huge shift now. LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram all support video. Brands are using all these platforms, and there is a huge impetus to using video content,” says Manu.

As an early beginner in this sector, Denture Capital has an advantage. But more importantly - it is the work that speaks about the startup’s growth and future possibilities.

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