Flickstree Raises $5 Mn in its Pre-Series B funding round, led by Venture Catalysts and 9 Unicorns

Flickstree, a content and marketing technology startup secured investment led by Venture Catalysts Group, India’s first incubator and largest accelerator for startups and 9 Unicorns, in its pre-series B round of funding. Flickstree creates AI-based editorial video content for video commerce.

Flickstree is a content led video commerce platform that enables transactions for their brand partners, leveraging in house video content, created using patented AI. The platform uses AI voiceover, AI script, and auto-generates branded video content. These videos are distributed through its own apps and websites such as PlusYou Club, and a network of more than 150 publisher partners. Flickstree currently has an active client base in India, Middle East, South-East Asia, UK, Australia and USA.

Reflecting on leading the funding round for Flickstree, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder, Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns said, “Flickstree uses the power of Artificial Intelligence to create the most compelling branded video content at scale, at no-cost for brands. Moreover, they use their data engine to promote these videos that keeps churning transactions on an auto-pilot mode. In sum, Brands get videos at no cost and consumers love watching these videos and buy their products and services. This makes it a win-win platform for all brands globally.”

"Content driven ecommerce is the fastest growing segment of online sales across Asia," said William Bao Bean Managing Director Orbit Startups and General Partner SOSV "Flickstree is the leader in India and now positioned to expand across the region helping brands to leverage video to drive sales."

Flickstree is a global product with an extremely asset lite plug-and-play model. Its inception took place in 2016. The company was started by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain and Nagendra Sandra, who hold a combined domain experience of over 30 years. With a team that specializes in the fields of branding, sales & distribution, digital marketing, machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, the company caters to over 200 brands worldwide, driving transactions over $50 million annually and boasts an active user base of 25 million on its platform.

On securing funds in the pre-series B round, Saurabh Singh, CEO of Flickstree said, “Consumers love watching video content before making transactions. That’s why content-led commerce is the future of e-commerce. Flickstree’s AI creates great content that consumers love to watch and transact, making this a cutting-edge platform to partner with, for all e-commerce brands worldwide.”

In its pre-series B round of funding, Flickstree secured US $5 million, which it plans to utilize for global expansion, along with strengthening its product and technology. It is also backed by Samsung Ventures, Orbit Startups (SOSV), LionRock Capital, FULD & Co., Lets Venture, AB Claymore, Angelbay, amongst others.

About Flickstree

Flickstree, a video commerce company, was founded by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain, and Nagender Sangra in 2016. Flickstree creates editorial video content using AI. It then

promotes these videos to drive sales using world class in-house data engine. With over 25 million monthly active users driving over 150 thousand transactions per month, Flickstree works with over 200 brands worldwide driving transactions over $50 million annually.

About Venture Catalysts

enture Catalysts is India’s 1st integrated incubator for startups. It combines capital, mentoring and network for startups and has a presence in 47 cities across India with international presence in UAE, HK, UK, USA, Canada and Singapore. Venture Catalysts invests in the range of INR 2 - 15 crores per startup through a network of HNIs, Family Offices, CXOs, etc.

Sourav Ganguly Invests in Mumbai Based Entertainment Company Flickstree

Indian cricketing legend and former captain Sourav Ganguly has made his very first foray in the startup world by investing in Mumbai based entertainment company, Flickstree.

Flickstree is a tech-entertainment company, started by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain and Nagender Sangra in 2014, officially launching their platform in August 2016.

Flickstree is India’s first Personal Video Magazine. It is a curated and personalized Video Platform, for free-to-watch videos. Flickstree compiles these free-to-watch online videos from social networks, media sites, and blogs and then creates a custom user video feed. The AI based on patent pending technology, allows Flickstree to effectively curate and personalize the experience for its users.

“Digital is the future of India across all fields. And going by the country’s Digital India vision, I decided to invest in Flickstree because they’re at the forefront of innovative cutting edge technology and have great founders to realize their vision”, said Sourav Ganguly. He also said, “Different users have different passions. Flickstree helps users follow their passion and create their personal video magazine. Such a model has the potential to change the way videos are consumed.”

Flickstree has bucketed 20+ video categories that users can currently follow, and they are constantly adding more categories on the platform. Ganguly continued, "Users today have interests in various fields. While currently users can create only a single video magazine on Flickstree based on their interests, going forward I have asked the founders to enable users create multiple such magazines that users can create and enjoy.”

Saurabh Singh, CEO, Flickstree said, “We are delighted to have Sourav Ganguly on-board as a partner, investor and a catalyst who really believes in our idea”. He also said, “India is witnessing video boom and with the launch of 4G, suddenly it has exploded further. With so many content producers creating quality content, it becomes difficult for users to discover videos across multiple platforms. Flickstree is trying to organize video content from the free web for users.”

Flickstree has raised a seed round Rs 3 Crore capital from investors like Venture Catalysts, Anirban Aditya & Ankit Aditya (Aditya Group, Kolkata) and Moksh Sports Ventures, along with Sourav Ganguly. Venture Catalysts is leading the round.

“The free-to-watch video space is extremely fragmented, with multiple players creating tons of video content. These videos are published exclusively on separate platforms – a user who has interest in several categories cannot install multiple apps and keep browsing them separately, also owing to limited phone storage. This leads to poor video discovery. Flickstree is trying to solve this consumer problem”, said Mr. Satadru Dutta, co-founder Moksh Sports Ventures and Business Development Consultant to Flickstree, who was instrumental in bringing Sourav Ganguly and Aditya Group on board. “Dada has always backed youngsters and accepted new challenges”, concluded Satadru Dutta.

Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder and President Venture Catalysts, said, “Flickstree’s core technology is an AI powered video recognition technology that watches videos in-screen like human beings. The patent pending technology generates keywords for each video and gathers video popularity, sentiment and engagements on Internet. This helps the company get best videos from multiple platforms. It also helps them personalize these videos for users.”

Flickstree is also a Facebook backed company via their FBStart program. Currently with 20+ video categories, users can follow & create an interesting video magazine on Flickstree.

“Video Industry is booming and will only explode further. A player like Flickstree can potentially change the way videos are consumed by users all over the world”, says Anirban Aditya, Chairman Aditya Group.

“There is something for every user type, with carefully chosen video categories on Flickstree. Everyone should give it a try”, says Sourav Ganguly.