NowThis, a Video News Startup announced that it has raised $16.2 million in Series D funding.The round was led by German media company Axel Springer — which, in addition to previously investing in the startup’s $6 million Series C, recently bought Business Insider andinvested in Thrillist. Previous backers Oak Investments, NBC News Group and Softbank also participated.
According to Jens Müffelmann, CEO of Axel Springer Digital Ventures they are increasing their share in a promising journalistic start-up that is focusing on the attractive future market of mobile and social video consumption.
The essence of NowThis’ strategy is illustrated by visiting the startup’s homepage. Instead of featuring news videos, it simply declares, “Homepage. Even the world sounds old.” and links to NowThis accounts on services like YouTube and Facebook. The company takes the “distributed media” model exemplified by BuzzFeed to an extreme, posting short news videos that are optimized for each platform, and not worrying about driving traffic back to its own website.
According to Stephanopoulos from NowThis, While they have seen phenomenal growth on Facebook over the past year, they are also seeing significant growth among many of the other social platforms. This funding will allow NowThis to both aggressively lean in on opportunities around video on Facebook, while expanding their content offering on other platforms.
The company said it crossed 200 million total views in May, and it’s sped past that milestone, now reaching 700 million monthly views. Sixty-eight percent of that audience is between the ages of 18 and 34. It’s also expanding by launching more focused channels, like NowThis Entertainment, NowThis Future and NowThis Weed.
Team TOS
