Financing round puts $133 million in iflix war chest
Malaysia-based subscription video on demand service iflix announced on Monday it had completed a US$133-million (Bt4.4-billion) funding round that attracted “significant” interest from both new investors and existing shareholders.
Hearst, one of the United States’ largest diversified media, information and services companies, Singapore-based EDBI and clients of DBS private bank were among the top investors.
Evolution Media, Sky Plx, Catcha Group, Liberty Global, Jungle Ventures and PLDT Inc increased their investments.
Since going live in May 2015, iflix has become the leader in its field in some emerging markets.
Over the last 12 months, the service has seen rapid growth across all segments of the business, expanding from four markets to 19 across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The company has additionally built integrated distribution partnerships with 27 telecommunications operators to bundle the service with customers’ mobile and data subscriptions.
During the same period, iflix also tripled growth across subscriber numbers and doubled its engagement with customers, while achieving an average active mobile-viewing duration of 2.5-2.75 hours per session.
The company saw 230 per cent growth in year on year revenue and produced 26,000 hours of subtitles in nine languages, with locally curated content in every market. Its content library contains thousands of award-winning and first-run programmes from more than 230 studio partners in 30 countries.
The new round brings total funding raised by iflix this calendar year to $220 million. Proceeds will be used to invest in local content strategy.
