Media conglomerates Cox Enterprises and Fox Corporation co-led a $113m series D round for US-based online broadcaster Caffeine with Saudi Arabian state-owned vehicle Sanabil Investments yesterday.
Venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners also contributed to the round, which boosted Caffeine’s total funding to $259m. The cash was raised at a valuation of more than $600m, company officials told Bloomberg.
Caffeine operates an online livestreaming platform with 2 million registered users that broadcasts live interactive entertainment through a mechanism it claims is up to a minute faster than other livestreaming services.
The company’s partners include Ultimate Rap League (URL), which broadcasts rap battles on the platform, as well as Fox Sports, which streams events such as college basketball and Bundesliga football.
Viewers can donate to streamers through in-app purchases called Props, the proceeds of which are shared with Caffeine. It will use the series D funding to expand the service while bringing more entertainers to the platform.
Ben Keighran, founder and CEO of Caffeine, said: “Caffeine connects entertainers with world-class technology so they can create content that is authentic and connects culture and community.
“We see this week over week during URL’s live battles where tens of thousands of people are experiencing something live and new together.”
Caffeine had raised a total of $46m from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners before Fox subsidiary 21st Century Fox invested $100m in September 2018, prior to the latter’s acquisition by Walt Disney.
