Sourav Ganguly Backs Curated Video Platform Flickstree

Former Indian Cricketer Sourav Ganguly has begun his innings as a startup investor. He has invested an undisclosed amount in Mumbai-based, curated video platform Flickstree.

“Digital is the future of India across all fields. And going by the country’s Digital India vision, I decided to invest in Flickstree because they’re at the forefront of innovative cutting edge technology and have great founders to realise their vision,” said Sourav Ganguly. He further added, “Different users have different passions. Flickstree helps users follow their passion and create their personal video magazine. Such a model has the potential to change the way videos are consumed.”

Apart from Ganguly, the round also saw participation from Venture Catalysts, Anirban Aditya & Ankit Aditya (Aditya Group, Kolkata), and Moksh Sports Ventures. Flickstree has raised $464K (INR 3 Cr) in this Seed round led by Venture Catalysts.

Talking about the technology, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, co-founder and President, Venture Catalysts said, “Flickstree’s core technology is an AI-powered video recognition technology that watches videos in-screen like human beings. The patent-pending technology generates keywords for each video and gathers video popularity, sentiment, and engagements on Internet. This helps the company get best videos from multiple platforms. It also helps them personalise these videos for users.”

Founded in 2014 by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain, and Nagender Sangra, the Flickstree platform was officially launched in August 2016.

Flickstree is a curated and personalised platform for free-to-watch videos. As per a company statement, Flickstree compiles these free-to-watch online videos from social networks, media sites, and blogs. It then creates a custom user video feed.

Talking about the development, Saurabh Singh, CEO, Flickstree said, “India is witnessing a video boom and with the launch of 4G, suddenly, it has exploded further. With so many content producers creating quality content, it becomes difficult for users to discover videos across multiple platforms. Flickstree is trying to organise video content from the free web for users.”

The company claims that its AI-based on patent pending technology, allows it to effectively curate and personalise the experience for its users. Flickstree has over 20+ categories that users can currently follow.

By 2019, video is expected to grow to 74% of all Internet traffic in India. Digital media product consumption in this segment is currently pegged at $1.2 Bn and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 33.5% to reach $3.9 Bn by 2020 in India.

In December 2016, video streaming platform, Dekkho raised $1.2 Mn Seed funding from seven angel investors. Traditional players like Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video are top contenders in this segment. Other players that compete with Flickstree include Hooq, Ogle, Big Flix, Eros Now, Ditto TV, Muvi, and Spuul.