Mumbai-based digital video curation platform Flickstree has raised $3 million in a Series A funding round led by Samsung Venture Investment Corp. LionRock Capital, Accretio Investments, angel investor L. D. Sharma, previous investors Venture Catalysts and venture capital firm SOSV’s Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX), also participated in the round.
Flickstree is an artificial intelligence-enabled video publisher network that seeks to increase user engagement within websites and apps. The company creates and aggregates video content, and embeds these videos within its publisher partners. It also offers a video player and monetises its videos. It has more than 15 million users.
Launched in 2016 by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain and Nagender Sangra, Flickstree previously raised seed funding from former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Venture Catalysts, The Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum, and SOSV. The company is also backed by Facebook’s accelerator program, FbStart.
“Indian Internet users are growing fast and online video consumption has grown from zero to 60% of all Internet traffic in India. All apps and websites now want to show videos to their users, if they need to survive. We help to bridge this gap. Not only does video content increases user engagement, it also allows our publisher partners to earn more revenues without making any additional effort,” said Saurabh Singh, CEO and co-founder of Flickstree.
Flickstree plans to use the funds to further develop proprietary technology around video content and expand into Southeast Asia. Later this year, the company will also foray into social and shopping videos and open a new affiliate stream for Flickstree’s publisher partners, it said.
“A significant portion of the funds will go into creation and aggregation of proprietary content, and vernacular content in and outside India. We are heavily India-focused, but we will consider expanding to Southeast Asia, West Asia, and other developing markets,” Singh said, over the phone.
“Video is a key building block service in any Internet platform,” said William Bao Bean, Partner at SOSV and MD at MOX accelerator. “Flickstree leverages its massive network of content creators and studios and tech-driven personalisation to deliver great content to users and recurring revenues to partners,” he added.
“Video-led affiliate commerce is the next big thing and with the proper use of technology, it can bring the right products in front of the right users. I strongly believe that performance marketing using videos will change the way industry has been operating for decades and will bring in much more value for all stakeholders involved” said L. D. Sharma, CEO and MD of Optimize Media Group.
