One of the most Popular over-the-top (OTT) platforms, The Viral Fever (TVF) has raised $6 million (nearly 41 crores) in a fresh funding round from the investor Tiger Global.
TVF raised the fresh capital at an estimated post-money valuation of around $40 million. The company had raised $10 million from Tiger Global at a valuation of $61 million, in February 2016.
TVF has raised more than $20 million in external funding as of now, which includes a $4.97 million investment from Tiger Global in July 2017. According to the reports, the money was raised at a post-money valuation of around Rs 216 crore ($31 million at current exchange rates).
Amongst its different YouTube channels, it consists of an estimated collective subscriber base which is close to
– 10 million with The Viral Fever
– 95 million with The Timeliners
– 24 million with The Screen Patti
– 85 million with Girliyapa
– 64 million with accounting for the lion’s share.
The Viral Fever is one of the early arrivals on the Indian digital entertainment concerned with videos covering a range of topics on Indian politics, movies, lifestyle, and emerging social concepts.
It was founded in 2010 by Arunabh Kumar and was incorporated in August 2015, TVF is backed by a clutch of well-known individual investors that include Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Ola co-founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Freecharge founder Kunal Shah and Toppr founder Zishaan Hayath, among others.
It generates its revenues through marketing and advertising streams which are associated with its content viewership and it is yet to charge audiences for its content.
TVF gradually started categorising its content under different channels, each with a different USP and demographic positioning in terms of content.
These include:
– TVF Originals
– TVF Qtiyapa
– The Screen Patti
– Girliyapa
– The Timeliners
– TVF Machi
– NBA Hangout
The Viral Fever is the pioneer of web-series in India with cult hits like Permanent Roommates & Pitchers. As of April 2018, TVF has over 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Apart from YouTube, the company runs the app and website, TVFPlay to host their videos. TVF conceptualized the idea of promoting movies through creation and distribution of original digital content like the Ishq Wala song series is one such venture.