InPlayer, a next generation video and digital asset monetization platform, has raised €560.000 from South Central Venture (SC Ventures; SCV), the company announced. This is by far the largest investment made in a tech company in Macedonia according to the SCV press release.
“InPlayer is thrilled to be working with SC Ventures in order to help us invest further into our team in Skopje”, George Meek, the InPlayer’s CEO, said.
“We currently have a team of 35 working across all business functions and expect this to double over the next 12 months. SC Ventures will enable InPlayer to continue its growth around the globe adding to the clients in the 24 countries we already have. Macedonia is key to the future of our business and we are lucky to attract the excellent talent who are living locally“, Meek added.
The investment in InPlayer will be used to further expand their team in Skopje as well as position InPlayer as one of the leading video and digital asset monetization platforms globally.
“We are excited to work with InPlayer’s team and support them in growing their client list further”, Tatjana Zabasu, SCV Managing Partner. “Digital assets monetization is definitely one of the hot areas in business and I truly believe InPlayer with its advanced platform and experienced, dedicated team, is very well positioned to become one of the top players in the market.”
According to the SCV Press Release, the digital assets monetization business is expected to grow constantly in the next few years. Hence this investment in InPlayer.
“MarketsandMarkets estimates the video streaming market alone to grow from $3.29 Billion in 2016 to $7.05 Billion by 2021, at an impressive CAGR of 18.3% due to the rising usage of online streaming. Key benefits of the growth of this market include the wide variety of choice, control over viewing time, unrivaled flexibility in the manner of consumption, easy access on multiple devices and much more”.
Founded in 2010, InPlayer is a Macedonian/UK company with a mission to make for their clients more money from their library of online media assets, be they live, recurring or on-demand. To date, according to their LinkedIn profile, the company has managed millions of dollars in transactions, making thousands of live events profitable. 24 hours a day, around the world, they process valued content for over 100,000 clients’ subscribers.
Some of their clients are DK4 and US cable network RideTV. Currently they are working with their first major sports agents IMG & SportRadar, they’ve developed full Video On Demand (VOD) solution for the CEE leader FilmBox and have worked with global brands such as Manchester United/Barcelona FC/Connor McGregor etc.
The InPlayer team consists of leading industry experts who have helped manage the distribution and monetization of content for some of the largest media and technology companies in the world. InPlayer Macedonia has its own top management team, led by COO Nenad Cubrinovski and CTO Filip Dimcevski, while its CEO George Meek and business development team are located in London, UK.
South Central Ventures, on the other hand, aims to support the startup system in the region, and help founders daring to bring their businesses to global markets. With offices in Belgrade, Zagreb and Skopje, SCV is focused on tech companies in the Balkans. The € 40 million fund is dedicated primarily to early stage and growth investments. The investment in InPlayer is their 9th investment to date.