How Pooja Jauhari & Varun Duggirala are building Emomee as a global kids’ IP

Growing up, cartoons weren’t just entertainment; they were structure. School bags were dropped, uniforms forgotten, and evenings began with familiar animated worlds that felt comforting, exciting and strangely instructive all at once. Without realising it, we learned about friendship, conflict, bravery and failure through characters who didn’t talk down to us. Those shows didn’t call themselves ‘educational’, but they shaped how we understood the world.

Fast forward to today, and children’s screen time looks very different. Content is abundant, fast, algorithm-driven, and often designed to keep kids watching rather than thinking. It’s this shift that prompted EMOMEE, a Mumbai-based kids’ edutainment brand, to ask a deceptively simple question: What if screen time could still feel magical, but also meaningful?

EMOMEE was born in 2023 in Mumbai, co-founded by creative founders Pooja Jauhari and Varun Duggirala, two parents who had spent decades building iconic brands before turning their attention to kids’ content. Their pivot to children’s edutainment didn’t come from boardroom brainstorms, but from watching their own kids consume digital content that was “just mindless screen time.”

“What our children were watching felt like rubbish content,” Pooja says. “And we realised we could build something better, not just for our home, but for children everywhere.” That insight, that entertainment could also be a vehicle for real-life skills, became the foundation of EMOMEE.

The origin of the name EMOMEE reflects the company’s core philosophy: emotions and identity. “It comes from ‘emo me’ – the emotions within me, and the emotions within a child,” explains Pooja. The three characters’ names tie back into this emotional universe, intentionally designed to be globally accessible while carrying a deep emotional resonance.

The simplicity of the name also serves a strategic purpose. “We wanted the names to be globally sticky,” Varun says. “Short, sing-along names don’t place the characters in one geography. EMOMEE can be from anywhere — and that matters if you’re building for the world.”

What Emomee is trying to fix

Today’s kids’ content ecosystem largely swings between two extremes. On one side is hyper-stimulating entertainment designed to maximise watch time. On the other hand, is overtly instructional content that feels like an extension of school.

“What we saw was a gap,” Varun explains. “There was either content that just grabbed attention and put kids into zombie mode, or learning-focused content that already felt like homework. We wanted to build at the intersection of what a child wants to watch and what a parent wants their child to learn.”

That intersection, according to the founders, is where EMOMEE operates. Each video is built on social-emotional learning frameworks, but delivered through storytelling rather than instruction.

“We always say this is learning disguised as fun,” Pooja adds. “A child comes back because they enjoy it, not because they’re being told it’s good for them.”

At its core, EMOMEE’s content tackles everyday questions with humour, heart and intentional learning, from “Hygiene habits for kids” to “Humans Vs AI” — always through stories featuring three central characters: E, Mo and Mee. Each episode pairs relatable situations with gentle lessons on communication, confidence, empathy and problem-solving.

This approach has resonated online. The brand’s primary YouTube channel, EMoMee – Cartoons That Build Life Skills, has amassed around 1.8 million subscribers and over 59 million total views. A secondary Hindi channel, EMoMee की मज़ेदार दुनिया, also enjoys strong viewership, with over 75,000 subscribers and more than 43 million accumulated views.

Trust as the real currency

In children’s media, parents are the gatekeepers — and EMOMEE treats that responsibility seriously.

“Trust is fundamental to our existence,” Pooja says. “Parents today are hyper-aware of what their child is watching, eating, wearing, and breathing. And they’re overwhelmed. Our job is to operate in their lives in a way where they can trust us blindly.”

That philosophy informs every creative decision, from colour palettes to pacing. “We don’t want content to feel addictive,” she explains. “It should feel interesting. There’s a big difference.”

EMOMEE’s content framework is layered — social-emotional learning at the core, followed by life skills, topped with curiosity. “When a parent leaves their child in front of an EMOMEE video, they should feel safe,” Pooja adds. “That sense of safety has to translate into every product and experience we build.”

Going beyond screens 

EMOMEE’s ambitions extend well beyond digital platforms. The brand follows what it calls a ‘Screen, Stage, Shop’ strategy.

“Screen is where the IP is built,” Pooja explains. “That’s where recognisability, love and habit formation happen.”

From there, EMOMEE has already begun testing how its characters translate into the physical world. The brand’s mascots have appeared at live events, including Hamleys’ Winter Wonderland, where thousands of children watched the characters perform on stage and queued up for photographs.

“We’ve already started bringing the characters to life,” Jauhari says. “Eventually, this will expand into larger experiences — stage shows, flagship play areas, and franchised formats.”

The final extension of this universe is commerce. “Shop includes products across categories like school supplies, apparel, FMCG and food,” she adds. “But everything is built around the IP.”

The Shark Tank moment

EMOMEE’s appearance on Shark Tank India Season 5 marked a public validation of its long-term vision. The founders secured ₹2 crore for 4% equity, but the platform served a bigger purpose.

“It was a moment of pride,” Pooja says. “An Indian company building characters that children love all over the world.”

For Varun, the motivation was deeply personal. “Why are our children only watching content made in the US or the UK?” he asks. “India has the ability to create global IP too.”

Looking Ahead

Five years from now, EMOMEE’s founders see a fully realised ecosystem, content on screens, characters on stages, products on shelves, all anchored in emotional learning.

“We want children to look at these characters and say, ‘That looks like me,’” Pooja says. “Not just visually, but emotionally.”

In a world where screens are unavoidable, EMOMEE isn’t trying to reduce screen time. It’s trying to restore purpose to it, much like the cartoons many of us grew up with, without ever realising how much they were shaping us.