London-based cloud video production platform provider Aframe has raised a Series A round of financing to expand its business internationally. The funding, which was led by Octopus Investments and Eden Ventures, with participation from existing investor Northstar Ventures, will be used to open new offices in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles.
Aframe has built a SaaS-based platform for managing video production and collaboration in the cloud. Rather than use the current workflow of sharing and updating documents and video reels by passing them around manually through email or online storage, Aframe provides an end-to-end solution for production houses, with one place to store, access, update and edit all the documents and video assets they need to produce a TV show or film.
The platform works by ingesting, transcoding and storing video in a way that allows teams to collaborate on it. It provides document sharing, timeline commenting, video sharing and review and approval tools for production teams. It also tags the media to provide time-based video search, enabling users to quickly track down video assets they need.
Being in the cloud increases the flexibility that production staffs have, but taking away the need for dedicated, on-site equipment and the need to pass large files between team members for editing or approval. And unlike other SaaS companies, Aframe has built out its own cloud-based infrastructure for storage and collaboration — meaning that it’s not dependent on Amazon Web Services or another third-party — it’s the only place where those files are all held.
Aframe’s platform is sold on a freemium, seat-based model, with free personal accounts and professional accounts starting at $ 99 a month per user. Enterprise accounts cost $ 249 per person per month. That pricing model appeals to large and small clients alike, with Aframe used for productions on networks like MTV and the BBC.
Total funding to date is about $ 10 million, which includes a $ 3 million “super angel” round that Aframe raised from former execs at Endemol, Vodaphone and AMV BBDO, among others. The company’s international plans also include the hiring of Mark Overington, who served on the founding team of Avid Technology, as president of Aframe’s North American business. The company has 34 employees today, mostly situated in the U.K., but plan to expand sales and marketing in U.S. video production hubs like New York and L.A.
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