PORTFOLIO COMPANY
Newsflare
An online marketplace for user-generated video content, supplying major global news outlets
- Newsflare began with regional news websites
- Now has clients in 40 countries
- Clients in UK include BBC, Telegraph and Sky News
- Has an archive of over 100,000 videos
- Acquires over 5,000 new videos every month
The inside story
In 2011, Bevan Thomas was watching a news report which featured gripping video footage shot by an amateur. It was a lightbulb moment – why not set up an online marketplace to sell user-generated content like this direct to news outlets and split the profits with the original filmer? Along with colleague, Jon Cornwell, they set up Newsflare – “Shoot video.
Tell the world. Get paid.” – and quickly found a market. Their agency soon attracted interest from mainstream outlets with no means to access rapidly breaking viral videos, while suppliers could be certain of getting the best price for their efforts.
Why we chose to invest and how it added value
At the point where Edge invested in Newsflare in 2016, the company had already attracted the likes of the BBC, Sky News and Mail Online. We believed we could scale the supply of saleable video direct from filmers, and help the company drive revenue growth, particularly within the editorial and brand advertising client base through increased sales and marketing spend.
We also were confident we could expand Newsflare Studios’ capacity as a digital content production unit.
Tell us what you are building
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