Kafqa Academy, a leading performing arts academy, has acquired Bengaluru-based dance academy Verb Studio. The deal to help Kafqa leverage on Verb Studio's larger distribution and contents on social media.

Launched by former Amazon Director Shariq Plasticwala, Kafqa Academy offers online classes with a structured curriculum leveraging technology to create a simple trial, payment and credit experiences offering revision and practice tools and digital performances.

In February 2021, Kafqa Academy raised a pre-launch seed round of $1.3 million from leading institutional investors and technology entrepreneurs.

Business outlook

It aims to create a technology-enabled performance arts ecosystem that can scale to serve 100 million artists in the next 7-10 years and become a $7 billion opportunity by 2027. It plans to grow the content viewership on social media to 500 million annualised.

The founders and the Verb Studio team will join Kafqa taking the combined strength to 160.

Verb Studio is one of the largest dance academies in India, with over 350,000 customers, about 150,000 subscribers across social media channels and over 300 original content from top instructors.

For Kafqa users, this acquisition will lead to larger access to experienced instructors and over 200 classes in 30 different forms of dance ranging from belly dancing, hip hop, Bollywood, and locking. The platform also provides free live classes.

Shariq Plasticwala, CEO and Founder, Kafqa said the Verb Studio strength in community building within the young adults’ in 16-25 complements current strengths.

Bharath Kumar, Founder, Verb Studio said the mission is to make dance learning accessible and affordable by leveraging technology.

Verb Studio was founded in 2018. The core team at Verb is from the dance team of NIT Trichy.

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