Mumbai: After a ten-year partnership during which time the company grew steadily, Devdatta Potnis, the current chief growth officer, has announced his decision to leave Cosmos-Maya.
Dev joined the studio as head of sales in 2011 and was instrumental in getting the animation studio’s first domestic IP, Motu Patlu, off the ground. The show is celebrating its ten-year milestone this year. In 2015, he planned another strategic move, diversifying the studio's revenue streams by establishing one of the biggest digital kids’ networks globally, WowKidz, which has over 90 million subscribers worldwide across YouTube and Facebook. With Dev at the helm, the studio went on to produce a multitude of shows with leading kids' broadcasters in India including Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network, Sony, Discovery and also cemented bonds with all the key OTT players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Voot, Zee5 and Disney+ Hotstar among others.
After this domestic success, the studio set its sights on international markets overseen by Dev. He placed Cosmos-Maya on a structured growth path across the European, Asian, and North American markets, and became the face of the animation studio globally. It was thanks to these consistent efforts, that the studio grew from 30 people to 1200+ artists & the coveted private equity investment came into the animation business, first with KKR backed Emerald Media in 2018 and then with TPG affiliate NewQuest Capital Partners in 2021. According to media reports, the company has grown phenomenally in the last decade, from one Indian series in 2012 to a market leadership position in India with a valuation of more than 90 million USD. Dev was a key architect in these endeavours.
"It has been a pleasure working with this incredible company, Cosmos-Maya, and I thank the founders, Ketan Mehta, Deepa Sahi and Anish Mehta, who gave me the opportunity to grow this company, plan its strategic direction, and take it to the stage where it is now India’s #1 animation studio. I owe a lot of my professional expertise and development to Cosmos-Maya and the team, who will always be special to me, personally and professionally. I wish them all the best for the future," said Potnis.
Dev’s next move will be announced soon.
