#fame raises $10 Mn in follow-on financing from TO THE NEW Ventures

TO THE NEW Ventures (TTN Ventures). This round follows the $3 Mn investment TTN Ventures had made when the business began in beta in early 2014. Since its launch in Sep 2014, #fame has emerged as one of the fastest growing digital entertainment networks in India. #fame shall use the funds to scale-up its original digital video business, grow its emerging talent network, invest in technology and expand regionally in Asia.

Catering to mobile millenials through an integrated ‘talent-first’ strategy, #fame is building a pan-Asian digital video network that will straddle over 5,000 channels and 50,000 content creators over the next 3 years. Since launch, the network has seen rapid growth and traction for its original digital video content. With monthly produced content volumes exceeding over 150 videos, #fame is India’s largest original content creator for web and mobile platforms. Over the next few months, #fame will ramp up its monthly content output to over 1000 original videos and expand its emerging talent network to over 500 emerging content creators.

#fame’s digital video network spans several digital and social platforms including YouTube, Facebook, WeChat, Daily Motion and leading content publishers. #fame strategically focuses on emerging and established talent to build digital video channels and communities around them.

#fame has identified 6 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 has a strong strategic presence in these markets where it has built businesses in the SMACK space (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Content & Knowledge).
Speaking on this development, Puneet Johar, CEO, TO THE NEW Ventures 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.”

Saket Saurabh, CEO, #fame 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.”

As part of its ‘talent-first’ agenda, #fame has announced a slew of digital tent pole properties aimed at identifying and promoting emerging talent. This includes ‘Lakme School of Style’ with style and entertainment icon Karan Johar and ‘Websinger’ its music initiative to seek out promising young singing talent with renowned composer Pritam. It is also focusing on building technology-based solutions to aid talent in content publishing and monetization.

True to its core philosophy, #fame has catalyzed the creator ecosystem by showcasing promising talent from the length and breadth of this country. Talent like Abhiruchi Singh, Sikander Sidhu, Simran Kapoor, Shanaya Sardesai are gaining their own fan following on social media. Apart from first-time vloggers, celebrities that have signed up with #fame include TV star Maria Goretti, child comic star Saloni, top model, actress and fashion icon Anusha Dandekar, celebrity chef Ajay Chopra, singing sensation Shibani Kashyap, fitness icon and model Milind Soman and renowned sports commentator Harsha Bhogle. #fame recently announced a strategic partnership with CAA Kwan, India’s leading celebrity management firm, to launch digital video communities for its celebrity roster.

#fame has wowed audiences recently with several viral hits. These include the much celebrated fame music anthem, ‘Tu Jaanta Nahin Mera Baap Kaun Hain’ (https://bit.ly/1EoxtaL), the myth busting ‘Vox Pop’ series from #fame fashion (https://bit.ly/1vTRgbv), the widely shared ‘Things girls do when they’re alone’ video from #fame comedy (https://bit.ly/1xIOSv4) and the popular ‘Jingle bells (Indian version)’ video from #fame music (https://bit.ly/1IeqqBm).

With over 300 Mn internet users, including 185 Mn users who access it on the mobile, India is delivering nearly 4 billion video views a month and is one of the largest and fastest growing digital video markets in the world. In monetization, video has grown faster than social with a 56% CAGR in the last 3 years compared to around 40% for Social. (Source: IAMAI ‘Digital Advertising Report 2014)