Magine, the Swedish cloud-based cable operator, today announced that it has closed a $19 million Series A round led by a group of Swedish and international investors. The company didn’t disclose the identity of these investors, but given the space the company operates in, $19 million is an impressive number. All Magine would tell me is that “we have found investors (as in our last round last year) that we think work very well with our industry and ambition.”
The company says that it will use this new influx of cash to fund its international expansion, with Germany and Spain being the next countries on its radar. The service is already available in Sweden. Magine previously raised €6.5 million.
What’s important to remember about Magine is that it is essentially an Internet-based cable operator. Because of the way the cable operators and TV networks and channels work together in Europe, the company’s model is very scalable, as Magine only has to pay a set fee to its content providers.
Unlike Aereo in the U.S., Magine operates without hardware and without touching any legal gray zones. Indeed, as the company tells me, it’s actually “loved by the industry.” You can read more about how the company operates in our more in-depth review from earlier this year.
As Magine chairman Michael Werner noted in today’s announcement, “Magine is not just another TV platform, but a totally new way of accessing and consuming content. It is a subscription service that was devised to make viewers come back to watching TV and this is why broadcasters and content providers are very keen to adopt the service. Magine helps them create new forms of monetizing whilst respecting the current rights chain.”
