ScreenHits: closes USD 1.2 million in its first round of funding

The total 1.2 million dollar round of funding will be used towards expanding the nascent company’s back end technologies and will focus on new business development and audience acquisition. Investors include high net worth angel investors, such as Rory Fleming, Lord Reay, and Flemming Lund among others.

Formed just over a year ago, ScreenHits is based in London and born from the idea that there had to be a more efficient way, between global and onsite markets to screen, buy and sell content. The company aims to provide a global platform for acquisition and distribution for the TV, digital broadcast and filmed entertainment industries.

In recent weeks, it closed distribution deals with a number of global distribution companies including Caracol, Fox Latin America, Relativity Media, AG Properties, Telemundo and Venevision. Other global distributors are Hasbro, TVF, eOne and SkyVision with additional deals soon to be announced.

‘We have benefitted greatly from the help of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) with its initial launch in the UK. The additional support from the UK Government with the creation of tax schemes, such as SEIS and EIS, has made the initial seed round extremely possible in setting up and launching a business in the UK’, stats Adkins.

Richard Powell, Vice Consul in New York, added: ‘We were able to provide strategic introductions to key industry players, as well as on-the-ground support in terms of logistics around company formation, accounting, tax, and office space. This kind of investment highlights the very current convergence of creativity and technology, and ultimately stimulates the UK’s creative sector, showcasing the country as a world destination for innovation, technology funding and R&D’.

Investor Rory Fleming completed: ‘ScreenHits is a unique investment, as it combines the best of consumer online video platforms with global content distribution on a B2B side and connects the two worlds together seamlessly, providing unique benefits on both parts – creating a low-cost, high return business model’.