Mumbai, NFAPost: Emerald Media (an investment platform backed by KKR) and Mayfield India have announced that they have sold their stake in Amagi, a global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV.
Accel, Avataar, Norwest Venture Partners, along with existing Amagi investor Premji Invest have collectively invested well over $100 million to pick up the stake held by Emerald Media and Mayfield India.
Amagi started in 2008 in India as a cloud-based geo-targeted TV advertising company, but pivoted in 2018 to build a global leadership position in SaaS-based broadcast and streaming of 24×7 live linear channels.
Today, Amagi supports over 800 channels on its platform including playout and redundancies. Amagi has emerged as one of the largest cloud deployments in the world with distribution in 40 countries across cable, connected TV and OTT.
It has developed deep technical integration with ad supported platforms such as The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, Plex, Redbox, STIRR, VIZIO, Xumo and other top 30 OTT platforms, providing one of the most comprehensive distribution coverage for content owners to reach their audiences in the US, LatAm, Europe and Asia.
Amagi Cofounder and CEO Baskar Subramanian said Emerald Media and Mayfield India were early investors in Amagi. “They invested at a time when cloud technology in broadcast media was in its infancy. We are grateful to them for believing in our vision and supporting our rapid growth over the last few years,” said Baskar Subramanian.
Amagi has established itself as the de facto SaaS platform for media brands resulting in significant growth in recent years. The company revenues have grown by 136% in the fiscal ending March 21 and this momentum continues, driven by 44% YoY growth in new customers.
Amagi enables up to 40% savings in cost of operations as compared to traditional delivery models. As ad spends shift to connected TV and OTT, Amagi has also been enabling customers to effectively monetize their content libraries, with its new product introductions. In fact, it has been delivering 5-10x growth in ad impressions for some of its top customers in recent times.
Emerald Media (KKR’s Pan Asian Media Investment Platform) Managing Director Rajesh Kamat said the company’s journey of partnering with Baskar, Srividhya and Srinivasan in bringing alive their vision of becoming one of the fastest-growing media SaaS companies in the world has been an enriching one.
“Amagi has today catapulted to international success with a global footprint and a robust growth trajectory on the back of its bold and pioneering technology innovation along with their ability to foresee the needs of the industry. We are confident of their continued success and wish them well on their journey ahead.” said Rajesh Kamat.
Mayfield India Advisors Managing Partner Vikram Godse said Mayfield being the first institutional investor in Amagi in 2013, and observed this company grow from an India-focused technology and services player to a truly global and dominant SaaS enterprise on the back of their unique and homegrown IP stack. “We wish all three founders and the incoming investors all the best in the years to come,” said Vikram Godse.
Amagi provides a complete suite of solutions for content creation, distribution and monetization for TV and OTT. The company also has a state-of-the-art cloud broadcast operations center that can support 1000+ live linear channels. Amagi clients include A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, CuriosityStream, Discovery Networks, Fox Networks, Fremantle, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, Tegna, Vice Media, and Warner Media, among others.
For more information about Amagi and its streaming TV solutions, visit www.amagi.com.
About Emerald Media
Emerald Media is a Pan-Asian company backed by KKR to invest in the fast-growing media, entertainment, consumer tech and B2B industries across Asia for which KKR has committed up to $300mm from its KKR Asian Fund II. Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives.
Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 40 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach. Emerald Media has made key investments in YuppTV, one of the world’s leading OTT video platforms for South Asian content, Amagi Media Labs, India’s leading targeted-TV advertisement solutions firm, aCommerce, Southeast Asia’s leading ecommerce enabler and e-distributor and Cosmos-Maya, one of the most successful animation content producers in Asia. The company recently announced a full exit from Cosmos-Maya and Amagi.
Emerald Media primarily focuses on providing growth capital to media, entertainment, consumer tech and B2B companies. The company looks to support growing public and private companies, by providing growth capital and strategic value add. For more information, please visit www.emeraldmedia.asia
About Mayfield India
Mayfield India has over $219 million under management and is a technology focused sector agnostic fund, that primarily invests in early stage companies, both enterprise and consumer. We are guided by our ‘People First’ philosophy and our investment team operates from a shared set of beliefs and partners for the long term with entrepreneurs pursuing big ideas.
Some of the investments made by Mayfield India include Licious (D2C meat brand), Matrimony.com (consumer internet), Lendingkart (SME fintech lender), LEAP (material handling equipment), Amagi (SaaS), Simplilearn (Edtech), Box8 (cloud kitchen operator), Clover (D2C F&V brand), Securens (remote monitoring and e-surveillance), Knowlarity (cloud telephony), Fourcee (liquid logistics), M1xchange (TReDS discounting platform), Strata (fractional real estate investment), Infinite Uptime (Industrial 4.0) and Agnikul (Spacetech), amongst others.
About Amagi
Amagi is a next-generation media technology company that provides cloud broadcast and targeted advertising solutions to broadcast TV and streaming TV platforms. Amagi enables content owners to launch, distribute and monetize live linear channels on Free-Ad-Supported TV and video services platforms. Amagi also offers 24×7 cloud managed services bringing simplicity, advanced automation, and transparency to the entire broadcast operations. Overall, Amagi supports 500+ content brands, 800+ playout chains and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. Amagi has presence in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, broadcast operations in New Delhi, and an innovation center in Bangalore.
