20 Flourishing Digital Media Companies & Startups
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The internet has revolutionized the way we consume media.
Instead of the newspaper, there are now hundreds of news sites and apps with content curated by algorithms.
Instead of the radio, there are podcasts on thousands of topics covering every niche interest imaginable.
Instead of expensive cable TV, there are streaming platforms that offer hours upon hours of free or low-priced content.
Digital media, no matter the type, is big business. We’ve researched trending companies in different areas of the media umbrella to bring you 20 diverse digital media startups that are changing the face of news, entertainment, and advertising.
1. Artlist
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2016
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Funding: $48M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Artlist provides royalty-free background music and sound effects for advertising, film, and other digital media applications. Works created using Artlist include the travel film 3 Years 30 Countries by filmmaker Sam Newton and a Mercedes-Benz commercial. After a sizeable funding round in 2020, Artlist brought on several new executives in mid-2021. Among them, product veteran Asaf Porat, who formerly worked at Wix and Fiverr, took on the position of VP of Product, and Ilil Livnat, a legal professional with a background in media, signed on as General Counsel.
2. Vietcetera
5-year search growth: 667%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2016
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Funding: $2.7M (Series A)
What they do: Vietcetera is a news media startup focused on a global audience of Vietnamese readers, amounting to around 20M readers per month. The startup offers written, video, and audio content in two languages across multiple different categories. Investors such as Go-Ventures, Genesia Ventures, and Z Venture Capital contributed to a $2.7M pre-Series A round that the company will use to expand beyond its initial Gen Z/millennial focus.
3. O9 Solutions
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2009
Location: Dallas, Texas
Funding: $533M (Private Equity)
What they do: O9 Solutions is an AI-powered platform that provides integrated planning and operations solutions for businesses across the digital supply chain. The platform offers advanced analytics, automation, and optimization tools to help businesses improve their decision-making processes and enhance operational efficiency. O9 Solutions serves a variety of industries, including retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, and logistics, among others, and has been recognized as a leader in the field of digital transformation and planning.
4. Songtradr
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Santa Monica, California
Funding: $171.2M (Series E)
What they do: Songtradr is a music licensing platform that connects artists and music creators with opportunities to monetize their music through licensing deals for films, TV shows, commercials, and other media projects. The platform offers a user-friendly interface for uploading and managing music, as well as powerful search and discovery tools for music supervisors and producers to find the right tracks for their projects.
Songtradr also provides tools for managing rights and royalties, making it a one-stop shop for music licensing and monetization. In November 2023, the company raised $106 million in Series E funding.
5. Podscribe
5-year search growth: 7,300%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2017
Location: New York, New York
Funding: $500K (Convertible Note)
What they do: Podscribe is a startup that offers transcriptions for podcast creators. The company touts accurate transcriptions powered by AI and offers additional features, such as an SEO-friendly feed for transcripts. Podscribe, formerly a podcast player company, pivoted to its current services in 2016.
6. SmartNews
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2012
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Funding: $410.3M (Series F)
What they do: SmartNews is a Japanese news startup that uses technology to deliver impactful and important articles to readers. Popular with readers in Japan and beyond, the app doubled its number of users per month in 2020. In addition, the “double unicorn” startup has raised a considerable amount of over $400M with a recent $230M Series F in September 2021. With this investment, SmartNews leadership is eyeing further expansion into the U.S. market.
7. Media.io
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2021
Location: Shenzhen, China
Funding: $10M (Series B)
What they do: Media.io is an online suite of AI tools for editing, converting, compressing, and sharing video, audio, and image files. The cloud-based platform allows users to handle all of their media file editing in one place. According to the startup's website, they support more than 50 million users in 160+ countries.
8. Motion Array
5-year search growth: 279%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2011
Location: Decatur, Georgia
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Motion Array is a digital media assets platform for filmmakers and video creators. The subscription-based platform offers a library of creative assets like video templates, music, footage, and tools for video collaboration and website building. Today, the platform supports more than 8 million users and offers 2+ million creative assets.
9. Tunetank
5-year search growth: 2,500%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2018
Location: Los Angeles, California
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Tunetank is an exclusive music licensing platform. Because the music available is royalty-free, content creators can use this extensive library of no-copyright music for YouTube, social media, and monetizable projects. Currently, Tunetank has a 4.8 rating with 350+ reviews on Trustpilot.
10. Fanatiz
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Miami, Florida
Funding: $17M (Series B)
What they do: Fanatiz is a digital media company focused on providing sports content on multiple devices, including desktop, mobile, and TV. Users can view global content and personalize their subscription based on their favorite sports team. The company announced a $10M Series A funding round in early 2020 with plans to expand to a global audience.
11. Asian Boss
5-year search growth: -7%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2013
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Funding: $1.5M (Series A)
What they do: Asian Boss is a South Korean digital media outlet catering to a global millennial audience. The company, which boasts viewers in over 130 countries and more than 4.5M fans, aims to give its audience an authentic view of Asian life, news, and culture. Asian Boss confronted a possible shutdown in January 2021 but later created a crowdfunding campaign to save their business that ended up raising over AU $700,000.
12. Philo
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2010
Location: San Francisco, California
Funding: $133.2M (Series D)
What they do: Philo is a digital media startup that offers an affordable streaming service for entertainment content. With a focus on delivering live TV and on-demand programming from top cable networks, Philo provides its users with a diverse selection of shows, movies, and sports events. Philo's user-friendly platform, which allows for simultaneous streaming on multiple devices, has made it a popular choice among cord-cutters looking for a budget-friendly alternative to traditional cable TV.
13. Lingokids
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Madrid, Spain
Funding: $62.5M (Series C)
What they do: Lingokids is an interactive language learning platform designed for children between the ages of 2 and 8. The platform offers a variety of games, songs, and other activities to make learning a new language fun and engaging for young learners. Lingokids covers a range of languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin, and provides personalized learning plans and progress tracking to help children learn at their own pace.
14. Streamlabs
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: San Francisco, California
Funding: $36M (Series B)
What they do: Streamlabs is a software suite that provides tools for live streaming and content creation, primarily for gamers and other online creators. The platform allows users to easily set up and customize their streams with features such as alerts, overlays, chatbots, and donation tools. Streamlabs also offers analytics and monetization options to help streamers grow their audience and generate revenue from their content.
15. Lickd
5-year search growth: 309%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2016
Location: London, England
Funding: $9.1M (Seed)
What they do: Lickd is a music licensing platform with over 100,000 royalty-free tracks and 1.3 million mainstream songs. This startup aims to democratize the use of music for online creators by making popular music more accessible. Some of the biggest creators, including Logan Paul, MrBeast, and Airrack, have used Lickd for their own videos.
16. Restream
5-year search growth: 133%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: Austin, Texas
Funding: $56.8M (Series A)
What they do: Restream is a social video broadcasting startup used by media, brands, public figures, and more to share content. The platform allows customers to share content across multiple networks at the same time, pre-record streaming videos, and more. Restream last raised $50M in August 2020, at which time its valuation was upwards of $17M.
17. Uscreen
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Uscreen is a video monetization platform that enables creators and businesses to sell and distribute their own video content through branded websites and apps. The platform offers features such as video hosting, payment processing, subscription management, and audience analytics, allowing users to create and manage their own streaming services.
Uscreen's user-friendly interface and customizable design options make it a popular choice for those looking to monetize their video content and build their own online video businesses. The company has grown to more than 8.5 million users and $20 million ARR.
18. Mubi
5-year search growth: 177%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2007
Location: London, England
Funding: $2.4M (Series C)
What they do: Mubi is a global movie streaming platform, production company, and film distributor. The platform provides a carefully chosen collection of movies, with a focus on hidden gems, independent cinema, and cult classics. In March 2023, Mubi negotiated a deal with Sony to add 50 films to its streaming library.
Some notable films from this deal included Steven Spielberg’s "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Martin Scorsese’s "The Age of Innocence," and "The Last Picture Show" by Peter Bogdanovich.
19. Vflix
5-year search growth: 970%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2012
Location: Bay Shore, New York
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Vflix is a media startup and streaming platform. Their streaming library consists of various independent films and series from around the world. This low-cost platform offers monthly subscriptions for $3.95 and a 7-day free trial.
20. Zencastr
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Funding: $4.6M (Series A)
What they do: Zencastr is a podcast platform that helps creators produce high-quality audio recordings plus video recordings through a beta offering. Reportedly the podcast choice of 6% of podcasters worldwide, Zencastr was bootstrapped until a $4.6M Series A round, announced in early 2021.
Conclusion
While this list features a varied group of companies, there are a few key trends that stick out: international news startups, podcast-related companies, and niche or no-cost streaming services. Based on search interest, there’s a potential for this group of startups to make a significant impact in the digital media space.
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Written By
Josh is the Co-Founder and CTO of Exploding Topics. Josh has led Exploding Topics product development from the first line of co... Read more