Last July, a new media company called Big Frame emerged to help YouTube stars increase their audiences and better monetize the videos that they were creating, and quickly signed up some of the most-watched independent producers on the site. Now, with YouTube clearly defining itself as a place where premium content can thrive, that agency has raised a little bit of funding to grow its team and help more producers make money.
Big Frame is announcing today that it has raised $3 million in seed funding from Anthem Venture Partners, Daher Capital, DFJ Frontier, LaunchPad LA, New World Ventures, The Media Farm, and Social Starts, as well as angels such as Diego Berdakin, Dave Goldberg, Peter Gotcher, Clark Landry, Adam Lilling, and Dan Murray.
The company got its start by signing up popular YouTube talent like Mystery Guitar Man, Destorm Power, and Mike Diva, but it’s quickly grown to represent more than 100 YouTube channels. Big Frame has also scored a spot as part of YouTube’s original programming initiative, through which YouTube is investing more than $100 million to bring more than 100 brand-safe channels online. Big Frame’s original channel, BAMMO, mostly features special effects creators.
At the same time that it is growing its network of content creators, Big Frame is also scoring deals with big brands for its clients. The company has produced original content campaigns with more than 100 brands, including 20th Century Fox, Levis, Home Depot, Sony, THQ, and Virgin Mobile.
Based in Los Angeles, Big Frame has grown from three founders to about 16 employees in just a year, all without funding. But now that it’s raised additional capital, founder Steve Raymond told me that he plans to use the funding to increase its marketing and sales team, as well as its programming development organization. The goal is to scale up the number of views its producers get, and subsequently to increase the amount of money that they can make. It’ll do that by continuing its data-driven approach to increasing audience size and by investing in more original programming.