ICYMI… back in December 2021, VIDA Founder Mark Maddox and Strategy Partner Kevin Sutherland spoke to FIPP about the state of UK Media Startups, including the investment landscape, business model and revenue trends and what’s next for what we call Next-Generation Media brands.
The founders of these content and community-powered startups.are great at community building and content creation but they often struggle to scale quickly enough to attract investment and avoid ‘the valley of death. ’
And this is at least in part because tech IP business models are seen as being more attractive than creative IP and audience-based business models. In fact, even the word ‘media’ can be a challenge for valuations and investment.
The good news is that Next Gen Media business models are being reappraised because they are rich in first-party data and have massively engaged and intensely loyal communities of ‘fans’ with high purchase intent, trust and willingness to buy.
These businesses are powered by their communities and behave like D2C brands selling products, services as well as subscriptions and ads. As a result they need to be valued differently as they are a hybrid of audience, content, retail, membership, DTC, etc.
Most angel and seed money stopped flowing over the last couple of years as a result of the Pandemic but we are seeing more businesses looking to raise funds – perhaps benefiting from the fact they bootstrapped their venture during lockdown or have grown sufficiently to bring on growth funding.
However in the UK there aren’t the same number of Private Equity or VCs and to date there hasn’t been the same willingness to invest in media ventures as we see in the US.
But VIDA is helping to drive that change by building an ecosystem of Next Gen Media startups, investors and corporate partnerships to power the growth of this emerging sector in the UK and across Europe.
