Amagi Media Technology announced Friday that it will invest $100 million in its cloud-based SaaS technology to improve broadcast and connected televisions.
Avataar Ventures, Accel, and Norwest Venture Partners joined Premji Invest, an existing investor, in the financing round. This included the purchase of stakes by Emerald Media, Mayfield Fund, and Mayfield Fund. Nadathur Holdings is still an existing investor. Baskar Subramanian (co-founder and CEO Amagi), said that Amagi's latest round brings the total amount of Amagi's funding to $150 million.
Amagi, a New Delhi-based company, offers cloud broadcasting and targeted advertising software. Customers can create and monetize content to be distributed on broadcast TV and streaming TV platforms such as YouTube, Samsung TV Plus, and Pluto TV. It supports over 2,000 channels in more than 40 countries.
Subramanian stated that video is a difficult technology to manage because it involves large files and lots of computing. Amagi allows content owners with no technology knowledge to streamline complex workflows and create scalable infrastructure. We want it to be easy to plug in to start targeting and monetizing advertisements.
Amagi customers enjoy an average operational cost reduction of 40% when compared to traditional delivery methods and their ad impressions increase between five and ten times.
This new funding comes at an era of rapid growth for the company. Subramanian stated that Amagi has grown 300% in the United States over the last few years. Amagi has a global audience of more than 2 billion, with the U.S. being its largest market. Amagi also sees potential for growth in Latin America and Europe.
In addition, the revenue grew 136% in the past year while the number of new customers grew 44% year-over-year, including NBCUniversal Subramanian who stated that the Tokyo Olympics were broadcast on Amagis for NBC, USA Today, and ABS-CBN.
The company will use the new funds to expand sales, R&D, and invest in its product pipeline. Subramanian said that the company has yet to make any acquisitions.
Amagi has broadcast operations in New Delhi and an innovation center at Bangalore. It also has offices in New York and Los Angeles.
Subramanian stated that infrastructure and consumer behavior have reached a critical mass. New companies are now bringing in new media and Subramanian is a big part of that growth. While sports will be more popular, live news and events will continue to grow the most.
Accel partner Shekhar Kirani said that Amagi has a unique approach for enterprise SaaS because of the $50 billion industry shift in video content. He sees half the spend moving to connected TV platforms very quickly.
He said that some legacy players such as Viacom or NBCUniversal have created their own streaming platforms. While Amazon and Netflix are leading the charge, not many SaaS companies can facilitate the transition.
Five years ago, Amagi had been well funded when Kirani met Subramanian. However, Kirani was enthusiastic about the platform and wanted the company to grow. Subramanian believes that the company has a long tailwind, as it saves people time and allows new content providers to move more quickly to get their content distributed.
Kirani said that Amagi is a brand new category and will continue to grow rapidly. Because they enable content providers to connect with any audience, they are already growing at a phenomenal rate of growth and more than doubling every year.
