MUMBAI: It was in September 2014 when To The New Ventures (TTN Ventures) had announced its plans to invest $10 million in the next couple of years in #fame, as it set a target to reach out to 5,000 channels and 50,000 content creators across six countries in south east Asia. And keeping up to that announcement the talent-led digital entertainment network, #fame has now raised $10 million, in second round of financing from TTN Ventures.
This round follows the $3 million investment TTN Ventures had made when the business began in early 2014. The network will use the funds to scale-up its original digital video business, grow its emerging talent network, invest in technology and expand regionally in Asia.
Speaking on this development, TTN Ventures CEO Puneet Johar said, “We are extremely bullish about video on mobile disrupting and re-defining entertainment and the opportunity is ripe to build an impactful consumer internet business. #fame is showing the trajectory of a market leader and we would like to back it to market leadership across India and south east Asia.”
Catering to mobile millenials through an integrated ‘talent-first’ strategy, it is building a pan-Asian digital video network that will straddle over 5,000 channels and 50,000 content creators over the next three years. With monthly produced content volumes exceeding over 150 videos, the network claims to be India’s largest original content creator for web and mobile platforms. Over the next few months, it will ramp up its monthly content output to over 1,000 original videos and expand its emerging talent network to over 500 emerging content creators.
#fame has identified six key markets in south east Asia to build local digital video businesses. These include Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines apart from India. TTN Ventures also has a strong strategic presence in these markets where it has built businesses in the SMACK space (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Content and Knowledge).
#fame CEO Saket Saurabh commented, “We are well-poised for the next exciting leap in our growth story as we scale-up our capabilities in original digital content, grow our talent network further and expand across markets.”
With over 300 million internet users, including 185 million users who access it on the mobile, India is delivering nearly four billion video views a month and is one of the largest and fastest growing digital video markets in the world, claims the network.
