TMT Investments, a UK-headquartered venture fund backed by Russian businessmen, announced yesterday a $400,000 investment in Virool. The Russian-American startup is developing a self-service video platform enabling video creators to target audiences across a network of online publishers, blogs, social games and mobile applications.
The startup also offers an application that makes it easy for publishers on Facebook, iOS, Android, blogs or other media channels to plug into the Virool network and start monetizing by providing advertising space.
“There are over a million videos uploaded to YouTube every day, with 95% of them getting less than 1,000 views,” said Virool co-founder and CEO Alexander Debelov. “No matter how funny or appealing your video is, it is not going to go viral unless enough people discover and begin sharing it. That’s where Virool comes in, helping anyone with a video to get noticed.”
Launched only a few months ago, the startup claims it serves 7,000 advertisers and enrolls about 250 new ones every day, providing them with more than half a million video views a day.
A Y-Combinator graduate, Virool previously raised capital from several prominent venture capitalists.
TMT is owned by German Kaplun, Alexander Morgulchik, and Artyom Inyutin, the founders of the large Russian media holding RBC back in 1993.
Last year, the fund invested $1 million in Berryman Capital Group (BCG), a developer of online games for social networks, and in Unicell, a leading mobile application service and content provider in Israel.
Earlier this summer, TMT invested in a US online backup provider and an Estonian business software publisher.
