UK video startup Newsflare lands £2.4m
Newsflare, a British media startup, has landed a multimillion pound cash injection from a young investment fund aimed at boosting the country's creative industries.
The £2.4m fresh funding comes from Edge Investments' Creative Enterprise Fund and will help the three-year-old startup's expansion.
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The Newsflare platform connects user generated video with top media companies such as Sky News, the BBC, CNN, the Daily Mail and more.
It's the first investment by the fund set up in November last year with the government's British Business Bank, promising to invest in creative digital businesses and three times return for investors over the next seven to ten years.
“This is an exciting moment for both Edge and Newsflare," said Edge investment director David Fisher.
“The growth potential for the sector is enormous and we are particularly keen to support Newsflare’s expansion into the lucrative US and Japan markets.
"Edge has a very strong track record of identifying, nurturing and developing early stage, leading creative enterprises. In Newsflarewe have selected another talented management team and an energising digital media platform that has only begun to show its potential.”
A similar startup, Storyful, was snapped up by News Corp in 2013 for £13m.
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Newsflare co-founder and chief executive Jon Cornwell said: “In the current era, we are living through the democratisation of video – nowadays anyone can capture startling footage that can be shared in an instant: Dash-cams, GoPro’s, smartphones – devices capable of recording high-resolution video are everywhere."
The deal follows fellow UK media startup The Memo landing more than a quarter of a million pounds in funding from private investors from the publishing and finance world.