YouTube network Maker Studios just closed out its Series C funding round, bringing on an additional $26 million from a wide range of international investors. The funding will bring the full amount of the round to $62 million, and brings total funding to date to $70 million.
The second tranche of the financing came from investors that include Canal+, Astro, SingTel Innov8, Lakestar, Northgate Capital, and existing investors. Others that have invested include Time Warner Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Maker executive chairman Ynon Kreiz, Downey Ventures, Elisabeth Murdoch, FUEL: M+C, Daher Capital, and producer Jon Landau.
For Maker, the funding from strategic partners like Canal+ and Singtel will be used to help grow its business overseas. In addition to its Los Angeles headquarters and its presence in London, the company also plans to add more offices in Europe and Asia. Those offices will have all the same functions as the company’s L.A. headquarters, including audience development, production, and working with commercial partners in different markets.
The reason? Well, Maker sees a huge opportunity to grow an already large international audience.
Maker now gets about 4 billion video views per month, or about 1 billion each week. Just for perspective: When Maker raised the first part of its Series C round in December, the company had half as many views with 2 billion per month. It has more than 60,000 channels and more than 260 million subscribers.
According to executive chairman Ynon Kreiz, the company has content coming from 80 different countries, and about half of its viewership comes from outside the U.S. The company wants to ramp up both the amount of content and number of viewers that comes from overseas. It also will be better positioned to do local ad sales in international markets.
The new funding was announced about a week after Maker Studios closed its acquisition of Blip. With that purchase, Maker acquired the Blip.tv destination site, as well as the company’s technology for managing videos and distributing to multiple platforms. It enables content providers to connect with game consoles like the Xbox 360, streaming boxes like Roku, connected TVs and Blu-ray players, as well as the possibility of getting on more phones and tablets.
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While YouTube will continue to be Maker’s largest and most important distribution point, the company wants to be everywhere its users are. With that in mind, Maker is working to distribute its content on the web and on mobile apps that will allow it to reach new viewers and help the company to monetize its content better.
Wanna learn more about how Maker has grown its online multichannel network? Check out the video below:
