Facebook-backed Flickstree nets $3m from Samsung, others

Flickstree, an AI video publisher, announced that it has secured US$3 million in a series A funding round led by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

LionRock Capital, Accretio Investments, and angel investor LD Sharma, as well as existing investors Venture Catalysts and SOSV and its accelerator, MOX, also participated in the round.

The deal is Samsung’s first foray into India’s video content space, according to a statement.

Photo credit: MOX

Founded in 2016, the Mumbai-based company creates and aggregates videos, which it embeds through its publisher partners including Samsung, Xiaomi, Micromax, Karbonn Gionee, and MX player, among others. It also offers publishers with white-label solutions such as a video player that can be directly integrated with their platforms.

“Indian internet users are growing fast and online video consumption has grown from zero to 60% of all internet traffic in India. All apps and websites now want to show videos to their users, if they need to survive,” said Saurabh Singh, CEO and co-founder of Flickstree. “We help bridge this gap. Not only does video content increase user engagement, it also allows our publisher partners to earn more revenues without doing any additional effort.”

The company plans to use the new funds to further develop its technology around content and expand into Southeast Asia.

Flickstree will also foray into social and shopping videos and launch a new affiliate initiative for its publisher partners later this year, according to the statement.

The company previously raised seed funding from Venture Catalysts, Indian cricket board chief Sourav Ganguly, and SOSV. It is backed by Facebook via the tech giant’s FbStart program.