· Pocket Toons Uses AI to make comics-binging a reality, along with overcoming traditional Comics barriers
· With Blaze!, its proprietary AI studio by blending AI with human creativity, it stimulates comic production with 20x faster speed at one third cost
· Pledged an investment of $15 million for Pocket Toons in 2025; Eyes $100 million ARR by 2026
India; February 18, 2025 – Pocket Entertainment, the newly restructured parent company of Pocket FM and Pocket Novel, is excited to introduce Pocket Toons, an AI-first comics platform that leverages AI to transform storytelling and content creation, setting new industry benchmarks in speed, quality, and accessibility.
How AI is Transforming Comics
At the core of Pocket Toons lies Blaze!, a cutting-edge AI-powered studio revolutionizing the way artists and writers create. Designed to enhance creativity without compromising the soul of great storytelling, Blaze! empowers creators to produce high-quality, episodic content 20 times faster than industry standards—all while slashing production costs to just a third of the usual.
Blaze! automates complex processes such as background rendering, scene composition, colouring and quality control, allowing artists to focus on storytelling and character development rather than production bottlenecks.
With Blaze!, Pocket Toons has redefined content production, releasing three episodes per day for a comic—a game-changer in an industry where the norm is just one per week. This represents a 20x improvement in speed at one-third the cost, setting a new benchmark for how comics are created, distributed, and consumed. This breakthrough ensures readers always have fresh, immersive stories to dive into, setting a new benchmark for engagement and storytelling.
Market Growth and Early Success
Since its beta launch in January 2025, Pocket Toons has gained rapid traction, already hosting over 30 comic titles and achieving strong product-market fit, with users engaging for an average of 60 minutes every day.
To accelerate its next phase of growth, Pocket Entertainment has committed $15 million in 2025 for scaling up Pocket Toons and is targeting $100 million in ARR by 2026.
Massive Engagement & Growth
Pocket Toons is already witnessing high engagement during its beta phase, proving that audiences are embracing this new way of consuming comics:
· Users are spending over 60 minutes per day on the platform; Paying users are spending over 2 hours daily
· Total reading time on the platform has surpassed 6 million minutes during the beta phase
· Total downloads have crossed 100,000 in last two weeks
Rohan Nayak, Co-founder & CEO of Pocket Entertainment, emphasizing on the transformative role of AI in the entertainment landscape, said “The fusion of AI and human storytelling marks the beginning of a new creative era. Historically, every major evolution in entertainment—be it cinema, animation, or digital streaming—has been driven by technology. At Pocket Entertainment, we are harnessing AI to amplify human creativity—empowering artists to push the boundaries of storytelling without replacing their unique artistic expression. By integrating AI into the creative workflow, we are not just increasing efficiency—we are unlocking new possibilities for storytelling at an unprecedented scale. Our users on Pocket Toons are loving it, spending over 60 minutes daily. AI-powered comics aren’t the future—they’re happening now”
Shreyas Joshi, SVP of Pocket Toons, elaborated on AI’s impact on the comics industry:
“The demand for high-quality, episodic content has never been higher. We are producing content 20x faster at a third of the cost, making high-quality comics more accessible than ever. Blaze! supercharges artists’ workflow while preserving creativity and originality, setting a new global benchmark for AI-powered storytelling. It amplifies the capabilities of artists, allowing them to produce more without sacrificing their originality or the quality of their work. Pocket Toons is not about replacing human creativity—it’s about enhancing it. As we look ahead, AI-driven platforms like ours will be instrumental in shaping the future of entertainment, bridging the gap between artistic ambition and scalable production.”
The AI Engine Driving Pocket Toons
Pocket Toons is deploying AI-driven innovation across multiple dimensions to accelerate growth:
· Personalized Audience Engagement – AI curates and recommends content tailored to user preferences, enhancing reader retention and satisfaction.
· Diversified Content Expansion – AI enables the exploration of new storytelling formats, including interactive comics and immersive genres.
· Global Reach & Localization – AI-powered analytics help identify key markets and adapt content for diverse cultural and linguistic audiences with unprecedented speed
The Blaze AI suite underpins its’ creative ecosystem, ensuring seamless and scalable artistic production:
· Tailored AI Models for Artists – Each artist benefits from an AI model that can be adapted to and trained with their distinct style.
· Real-Time AI Rendering – AI-generated illustrations are produced instantly using accessible, everyday computing power.
· AI-Powered Search & Quality Control – Intelligent scene-matching and automated quality checks maintain artistic integrity and coherence.
“India is making its mark on the global AI stage, and Blaze! is the latest proof of how India is building AI for the world. I am incredibly proud that Pocket FM, a pioneer in the audio entertainment revolution, is now expanding its vision with the launch of Pocket Toons. With its proprietary AI-powered studio, Blaze!, Pocket Toons is setting new benchmarks in the comics industry—redefining storytelling by blending human creativity with AI-driven efficiency. This is not just about speed and scale; it’s about democratizing comic creation, empowering artists, and making high-quality storytelling more accessible than ever before. As one of our portfolio companies, Pocket FM continues to push the boundaries of innovation, proving that India is at the forefront of shaping the future of global entertainment.” said Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed.
The Comics Market is Booming—AI is the Key to its Future
The global comics industry is undergoing rapid transformation. Valued at $8.63 billion in 2023, the comics market has been expanding at an annual growth rate of 7.8% since 2018. By 2028, projections estimate it will reach $11.39 billion, with a further increase to $15.38 billion by 2033. This momentum is fueled by AI-powered content creation, increasing digital adoption, and the rise of mobile-first reading experiences.
