Kiwi company raises $7.5M in funding, sets sights on bigger markets

90 Seconds, the Kiwi founded cloud video production platform, has raised US$7.5 million in Series A financing led by Sequoia India. Sequoia has invested in several of the world's most famous companies including Apple, Google, YouTube and Airbnb.

The round, supported by SKY TV NZ, Airtree Ventures, Beenext and Fotolia.com (sold to Adobe for $860m) founder Oleg Tscheltzoff, will accelerate 90 Seconds' global expansion as the market leader in cloud video production, according to the company.

90 Seconds provides tools to reduce the complexity of video production, giving brands and agencies access to a marketplace of creatives, and an automated, end-to-end suite of workflow tools.

The 90 Seconds marketplace enables discovery of more than 5,000 video creative professionals in over 70 countries across 40 categories including videographers, directors, editors, producers, animators, drone operators, photographers and many more.

These creatives can collaborate on a comprehensive software platform which allows customers the ability to purchase, plan, shoot, edit and review professional videos across the globe - all online or from their mobile.

Tim Norton, 90 Seconds founder and CEO, says "Video content is a must have in today's world and we are proud to have developed a solution that works for brands around the globe to deliver fast, affordable content.

"We are excited to work with our new and existing investors who understand the opportunity 90 Seconds has to completely change the global video production landscape.

Some of the world's biggest brands including Visa, PayPal, Sony, Samsung, Barclays and Microsoft have used the platform regularly, according to Norton.

Along with brands, 90 Seconds also works with agencies on global projects and provides seamless integration with popular video distribution platforms, storage platforms and stock libraries including Youtube, Vimeo, Dropbox and Google Drive.

"90 Seconds has provided us with an affordable, transparent and collaborative process through our projects with them. Their strength in multiple country productions is a big plus," says Jackie They, BBDO Singapore head of content production.

eMarketer estimates the content marketing, video marketing, and social media industries to be worth $118 billion and Nielsen reports that 64% of marketers expect online video to dominate their strategies in the near future. Within this large market, 90 Seconds had strong growth of over 300% in revenue in the past twelve months.

Pieter Kemps, Sequoia Capital vice president says, "The 90 Seconds team has done a terrific job in building the leading global marketplace for video production. In the large and rapidly growing video market, they offer creative talent and agencies a unique workflow platform to work together on global projects. This has enabled them to build a fast-growing and rapidly scaling model.

As well as further developing technology and customer experience, this funding round will be used to meet strong demand from the industry by expanding into new markets in Asia, the US and Europe, and strengthening their presence in existing countries, according to the company.