IPFS News Link • Business/ Commerce
Startup Vidme Raises $6 Million to Build 'YouTube-Reddit' Hybrid
• http://variety.com, Todd SpanglerThe new investment was led by NEA with participation from previous investors including Upfront Ventures, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, SV Angel and Mucker Capital. Vidme last year raised a seed round of $3.2 million, after launching in 2014 as a simple video-sharing utility.
The L.A.-based company claims to have nearly 1 million registered creators and more than 25 million unique monthly users, with a demographic profile that skews toward males 18-30 in the U.S.
Vidme groups user videos into different community-curated categories — akin to subreddits — including gaming, animation, "Weird Wide Web," and movies and entertainment.
"Our initial product radically simplified video publishing, and the new round of funding is helping us grow our community and develop new ways for creators to build audience and earn money," said co-founder Warren Shaeffer. Whereas YouTube is "trying to be everything to everyone," he added, Vidme is more focused on helping creators get discovered and connect with fans.