Bangalore: 90 Seconds, the world’s leading cloud video production platform has announced that it has raised US$7.5 million in Series A financing led by Sequoia India. Sequoia has invested in several of the world’s most famous companies including Apple, Google, YouTube and Airbnb.
The round, supported by SKY TV NZ, Airtree Ventures, Beenext andFotolia.com (sold to Adobe for $860m) founder Oleg Tscheltzoff, will accelerate 90 Seconds’ global expansion as the market leader in cloud video production. This funding round will be used to meet strong demand from the industry by expanding into new markets in Asia, the US and Europe, and strengthening their presence in existing countries.
90 Seconds strips back the complexity of video production, giving brands and agencies access to a marketplace of creatives, and an automated, end-to-end suite of workflow tools. The 90 Seconds marketplace enables flexible and easy discovery of more than 5,000 video creative professionals in over 70 countries across 40 categories including videographers, directors, editors, producers, animators, drone operators, photographers and many more.
These creatives can seamlessly collaborate on a comprehensive software platform which allows customers the ability to purchase, plan, shoot, edit and review professional videos across the globe – all online or from their mobile.
India is a key growth market for 90 Seconds in 2016. The company’s current 100 creative freelancers in India will grow to over 500 in the next six months. The team will be spread out across Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
90 Seconds in India has already produced over 100 videos for companies such as Rolls Royce, Cricket Australia, Financial Times, Oracle, JLL and Exxon Mobil as there is an increase in demand for localised Indian content for large multi-nationals from the 90 Seconds SEA and Australian offices.
Founder and CEO of 90 Seconds, Tim Norton says “Video content is a must have in today’s world and we are proud to have developed a solution that works for brands around the globe to deliver fast, affordable content. We are excited to work with our new and existing investors who understand the opportunity 90 Seconds has to completely change the global video production landscape.”
“90 Seconds has provided us with an affordable, transparent and collaborative process through our projects with them. Their strength in multiple country productions is a big plus,” says Jackie They, Head of Content Production at BBDO Singapore.
eMarketer estimates the content marketing, video marketing, and social media industries to be worth $118 billion and Nielsen reports that 64% of marketers expect online video to dominate their strategies in the near future. Within this large market, 90 Seconds had strong growth of over 300% in revenue in the past twelve months.
Pieter Kemps, Vice President of Sequoia Capital says, “The 90 Seconds team has done a terrific job in building the leading global marketplace for video production. In the large and rapidly growing video market, they offer creative talent and agencies a unique workflow platform to work together on global projects. This hasenabled them to build a fast-growing and rapidly scaling model.”