Content creators platform secures $2m funding

Lack of platforms to boost local content is major missing link

LAHORE:

The first digital platform of Pakistan for content creators has managed to secure Series A funding of $2 million.

Total valuation of the startup named Rinstra is estimated at $20 million.

According to management of the startup, the company has ample potential to emerge as one of the fastest growing enterprises in the digital world of Pakistan.

With over 76 million internet users and 37 million active social media accounts, Pakistan offers a huge opportunity for growth in this segment. However, a lack of indigenous platforms to boost local content is a major missing link for Pakistani content creators.

Officials of the startup pointed out that while other applications and platforms offered simple streaming of news and entertainment channels or videos on demand (VOD) service, the new platform went ahead and opened doors for Pakistani content creators.

They revealed that the idea was floated at DICE Foundation USA’s annual meeting where Pakistanis from North America and Europe underscored the need for a digital platform to tap the potential of Pakistani storytellers and introduce local narrative to the global content stream.

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The proof of the concept was approved and initial seed money of almost $500,000 was invested to create the startup with funding from the American-Pakistani diaspora, they said.

The Series A investment of $2 million will be funded by investors of Pakistani origin. The startup is valued at $20 million on the basis of projected industry trends in valuation of similar businesses in the emerging and frontier markets.

The demand for content and entrepreneurial enthusiasm to create new content for digital space was pushing boundaries of content imagination and creativity for such platforms with original and indigenous ideas, they said.

Some of the leading features that the startup is able to introduce in the media and tech industry in Pakistan are content diversification, short-form videos, content in regional languages and Pakistan’s first shadow board.

The platform also offers dramas and films while enabling users to generate their own content.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2021.

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