BuzzMyVideos Closes $2.5M Series A Funding As Eyeballs Switch To Online Video

We covered the launch of BuzzMyVideos, a new a content network which specialises in international online video content promotion, back in July.

Video makers pay for the promotional tools, which have been created by two ex-YouTube leaders, who realised that over 80% of views on YouTube come from outside the U.S. and 70% of the predicted $163 billion digital ad spend in 2016 is also set to come from outside the U.S.

Now the London-based company has closed a Series A funding round of $2.5 Million from Italy-based fund United Ventures.

The funding will be used to improve product, add to the team and expand biz dev. They inked a deal a few months ago which made them the first european MCN to have a syndication partnership with AOL On.

BuzzMyVideos joins an increasingly active market.

So far this year YouTube multichannel network Fullscreen has sold a controlling stake to AT&T and the Chernin Group’s joint web video venture, Otter Media, valuing it at around $200-$300 million.

Rightster, the U.K. video distribution and monetisation startup acquired Viral Spiral, which specialises in social video management, and Base79, one of the largest YouTube partners outside North America, raising £42 million to do so.

And StyleHaul joined the growing list of YouTube networks aligning themselves with traditional media giants when it agreed to sell a controlling stake to European entertainment company RTL Group for $107 million, thus valuing it at up to $200 million.

With all that said, the international YouTube network space is still comparatively small, and could be wide-open for a company like BuzzMyVideos.

With a community of over 5,000 content creators, the startup claims it has nearly 3 billion views with 15 million subscribers to its technology-driven network. Its BuzzScorecard product, an optimisation tool, is available in English, Italian, Russian and Turkish, hence the emphasis on international traffic.

Paola Marinone, Co Founder and CEO of BuzzMyVideos says “eyeballs are fast shifting from traditional offline television to online video. Production and distribution cycles are changing dramatically and monetisation models are being reinvented.”