Media startup ScoopWhoop has acquired Touchfone Technologies for an undisclosed amount in a cash-and-stock deal. As part of the deal, Touchfone Technologies Co-Founders Mahesh Subramanian and Brahmayya Akella will be appointed as ScoopWhoop’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief Integration Officer respectively.
The buyout is the first for the Kalaari Capital-backed ScoopWhoop, which was founded in 2013. Touchfone Technologies, founded in 2010 and backed by Blume Ventures, enables video delivery and ad targeting across devices and networks. It counts Star, Asianet, Disney and Big Flix among its clients.
“At the core of ScoopWhoop, most of us are content guys,” said Sattvik Mishra, Co-Founder of ScoopWhoop.“If we have to go from 30 million unique users to 100 million unique users in the next three to four years, we need to scale up tech, improve video streaming and brand revenue potential.” Subramanian said his team of 12 will operate out of a Bengaluru-based office that is being set up and will focus on improving personalisation and monetisation through user targeting. “We will be targeting the next 100 to 200 million that will come online from tier-2 and 3 segments,” he said.
Touchfone Technologies’ video streaming product Strmeasy enables video-streaming services on 2G and Edge speeds, which will help ScoopWhoop target this market. In addition to video streaming services, the company will focus on improving personalisation and brand revenue opportunities through targeted advertising.
“We are doing around 100 to 120 million video views a month and want to bring in those views through our own platform, and reduce share of Facebook and YouTube. Also, to increase earnings per 1,000 impressions for brands, this simple plug-and-play through Strmeasy will help scale up brand revenue by improving reach,” said Mishra.
Bala Srinivasa, Partner at Kalaari Capital and a board member who overlooked the acquisition, said Strmeasy is essential to strengthen ScoopWhoop’s ability to innovate with new content formats and improve ad impact measurement tools required for scaling up quickly.
Source: Economic Times
