WASHINGTON and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ --
TinselVision (http://www.tinselvision.com), a Tinsel Cinema broadband
Internet, video-on-demand (VoD) service delivering premium Indian
television and Bollywood film content to more than 40 million persons of
Indian origin living overseas, today announced it has secured terms for an
inside, up-round for Series B financing, led by its current largest
investor, Innovative Entertainment Limited (IEL).
The new capital comes just days before TinselVision announces four
additional online distribution deals with leading Indian film, television
and music production houses. Over the past few months, TinselVision secured
content licensing deals with STAR TV, Zee TV, Yash Raj Films and Zoom TV.
Company sources confirm the amount of the Series B round exceeds the
Series A funding level of US$3MM, and establishes the company's pre-launch,
post-money valuation at nearly US$20MM.
Explaining the reasons for accelerated funding, a spokesman for the
company's finance group notes "management has soundly navigated the early
capital and content risk phases of the business and, has a growing appetite
to extend these early gains." Its finance team sought and readily obtained
acceleration capital in advance of previously planned growth capital. The
venture will deploy its deep access to liquidity to implement its tested
tactics for infrastructure, distribution and services launch.
"We committed to achieve value creation and content momentum exceeding
marketplace norms when we closed Series A funding just five months ago,"
offers Chase Weir, Chairman and CEO of TinselVision. "We have now exceeded
the milestones of our original capital commitments and, our investors
decided to re-affirm these accomplishments with a near doubling in share
value and more than doubling their invested capital."
Board director and President of IEL, Shahid Khan, states, "With expert
management, TinselVision has secured a cost structure unmatched among its
peers in the industry, with lower than standard commerce transaction costs,
better than 60% reductions for content delivery costs over market rate
norms, and commercially viable licensing and advertisement concession
terms," adding, "In addition to these cost-of-revenues successes, the
company's track record with content acquisition is unrivaled in quality and
diversity among other providers in this niche -- all before the business
has even launched services. In case we needed more incentive to further
capitalize this venture, the firm's leadership has done all of this under
budget with excess cash on hand, demonstrating their strong stewardship of
invested funds."
The US-India based venture is already in discussions for Series C
funding and, intends to disclose terms secured for collapsed film releases,
cricket licensing, exclusive IPTV technology rights, and advanced business
intelligence offerings to its advertisers and licensors in the coming
weeks, in addition to unveiling designs for its v3.0 online services and
social networking features. TinselVision will use Series B funding to
extend its investments in grassroots community and online viral marketing,
in addition to key hires in senior management, content acquisition,
advertising sales and extensible distribution.
ABOUT TINSELVISION
TinselVision(TM), a trademarked service of Tinsel Cinema, LLC, is a
Washington, DC and Mumbai, India-based premium VoD provider scheduled to
launch its niche service in late November 2007. TinselVision will deliver
Bollywood and South Asian movies, television series and sporting events via
IPTV to PCs, laptops, TVs and mobile devices to South Asian households in
the US, UK, Canada, and globally. The service seeks to provide nearly 40
million viewers with choice, affordability, control and convenience through
on-demand access to one of the largest libraries of South Asian content
while offering a new and lucrative distribution channel to content
producers and owners. For more information visit
http://www.tinselvision.com.
ABOUT INNOVATIVE ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED
Innovative Entertainment Limited (IEL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Innovate Energy Group (IEG), with combined annual revenues of approximately
US$2.5 billion. The principals and co-founders of IEL, Muhammad Rafique and
Shahid Khan, also the Chairman and CEO of IEG respectively and members of
the board of directors of Tinsel Cinema, have expanded their global markets
vision and proven financial skills in distribution, electronics,
infrastructure and alternative energy to broadcast media and entertainment.
IEL has been established initially to provide the early-stage financing and
later-stage growth capital TinselVision(TM) requires to become the market
leader in broadband entertainment services to South Asian communities
around the world. These initial investments in TinselVision's global
on-demand and social networking service models will also build the
Veodi(TM) and ChannelMine(TM) brands.
SOURCE TinselVision
back to top
