Excl: Over-the-top video-on-demand platform ReelBox raises funding

Chennai and US-based ReelBox Media Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a wired and broadband based over-the-top (OTT) video-on-demand provider, has secured funding from a group of investors, including Naru Narayanan, co-founder of Chennai-based Xcode Life Sciences and a member of Chennai Angels.

ReelBox, which is mainly targeting the Kannadiga community in the US, will use the capital to expand further into Canada and Europe.

ReelBox was founded in November last year by Karthik Vaithianathan (CEO), who holds a BE degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Anna University (Tamil Nadu), and an MS degree in Electrical and Computer Science from Arizona State University (US). He has 15 years of experience in software/hardware stack. Prior to setting up ReelBox, Vaithianathan was a key media architect at Intel.

ReelBox delivers high-definition video content, including movies via a media streaming dongle. Currently, ReelBox serves the Kannadiga community with a catalogue of around 3,000 Kannada movies. The company has a revenue sharing agreement with content providers. In future, the startup plans to expand the services to other regional languages, including Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, targeting various expat communities overseas.

The platform was launched in November this year and it has already bagged more than 1,000 subscribers, of which close to 100 consumers are actively watching its content on TV, according to the founder. The company has an office in Bangalore as well.

"We have a very dynamic pricing which changes every day. We offer a no-subscription pay-per-view model. It is basically a pre-charge and use model. We enable subscribers to purchase content when the prices are low and keep them for later viewing," Vaithianathan said.

The firm is also eyeing to launch the services across the entire North America, besides expanding into Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Middle East going forward.

For more details on the funding click here.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)