Ajay Devgn’s award-winning entrepreneurial initiative, NY VFXWAALA, announced a strategic partnership with the acclaimed Swedish studio, Goodbye Kansas Studio, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, through one of its subsidiaries Funtastik Studios. With this investment, NY VFXWAALA has secured a major stake in Goodbye Kansas with its offshore subsidiary. Along with this, the partnership marks the establishment of a joint venture in India, to create a scalable production hub to provide competitive solutions and drive revenue growth in new business segments. The collaboration not only capitalises on the extensive talent pool in India and Asia but also underscores the companies’ commitment to innovation and excellence in visual effects and digital content creation.
With this partnership, Goodbye Kansas has secured a SEK 36.8 million (approx Rs 29.5 crores) financing package, comprising a rights issue and a directed issue of convertible debentures, along with bridge loans. The financing, subject to approval by Extraordinary General Meetings, demonstrates Goodbye Kansas‘ commitment to fueling its growth ambitions and strengthening its position in the market.
NY VFXWAALA, with its track record in post-production services, brings invaluable expertise to the table. Headquartered in Mumbai with a branch in Hyderabad, the VFX studio has worked on approximately 300 films since its inception in 2015. It has won prestigious awards like 64th National Awards, India, 10th Asian Film Award and more. The partnership with Goodbye Kansas presents an opportunity to further enhance its service offerings and expand its global footprint.
NY VFXWAALA founder and chairman Ajay Devgn highlighted, “Our endeavours involve setting new benchmarks with each project. We embrace a continuous process of learning, evolution, and adaptation to the latest technologies. I am delighted to extend our NY family through the Goodbye Kansas partnership. Our unwavering passion for delivering excellence persists, fuelled by our core values and dedication. We take pride in associating with a like-minded partner such as Goodbye Kansas, and look forward to this journey together.”
Goodbye Kansas is a powerhouse in creating cinematic trailers for top triple-A games worldwide and delivering visual effects for live-action productions. Their impressive portfolio includes work on games like Cyberpunk 2077, God of War: Ragnarök, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the Battlefield franchise, and PUBG Battlegrounds. Beyond gaming, they’ve undertaken fascinating visual effects projects. Their ongoing collaborations with HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney, Apple TV, Paramount Plus, and others are truly exceptional.
Recent shows they’ve contributed to include True Detective Season 4 (HBO), One Piece (Netflix), and Carnival Row (Amazon Prime). Additionally, they’ve lent their expertise to numerous commercials and feature films, including Asteroid City and A Man called Otto (both featuring Tom Hanks). Their outstanding work has garnered prestigious awards, such as the VES (Visual Effects Society) award for ‘Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial’ for their work on the character ‘Dex’ in the Cyberpunk 2077 E3 trailer, presented at the 18th Annual VES Awards gala in Los Angeles.
Goodbye Kansas CEO Stefan Danieli expressed, “It is pleasing to welcome NY WFXWAALA as a business partner and a strategic investor in Goodbye Kansas. The partnership opens up exciting growth opportunities in Asia and enables us to efficiently expand production resources and capabilities. These important operational changes coupled with the announced rights issues will support Goodbye Kansas’ journey towards profitable growth.”
NY VFXWAALA creative head and co-founder Naveen Paul shared, “We are thrilled about partnering with the Goodbye Kansas team. Our joint vision is to raise the quality benchmark, drive global expansion, and deliver exceptional service to clients worldwide. With unwavering commitment to our goals, we eagerly look forward to expanding our business and welcoming dedicated talent not only in India but globally, to collaborate on an exciting future.”
Goodbye Kansas chairman of the board Per Anders Wärn emphasised, “NY VFXWAALA is an ideal partner for Goodbye Kansas, sharing the same dedication to outstanding talent, cutting edge technology and engaging narrative. This strategic partnership brings together our strengths in a way that will benefit both our organisations. Together, we’re positioned to create exceptional value for our customers, and open new development opportunities for our talented co-workers.”
Both parties will contribute with creative and technological expertise to offer technology-driven visual content to film, TV and gaming companies in India and broader Asia and use global resource planning to improve production efficiency. The main focus for the partnership and joint venture encompasses:
- Improve profit margins by utilising scalable production hub resources and establish a global approach to resource planning and talent acquisition.
- Accelerate revenue growth through scalable capacity addition and increased sales efforts within existing business segments (VFX, animation, game trailers and in-game) in new geographical markets and benefit from the trend of increased outsourcing of VFX and gaming content.
- Strengthen service offerings globally, with a combined increased scope of services whilst exploiting the Indian games market and additional Asian markets.
- Goodbye Kansas state-of-the-art scanning and motion capture studio will be extended to serve their clients in Asia and beyond.
- Establish a collaborative Research and Development (R&D) team between both partners. This team will focus on creating innovative tools and technological advancements.
The parties aim to make the joint venture and integrated collaboration operational as of Q3 2024.