Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) unicorn Amagi Media Labs, on Wednesday announced commencing operations in South Korea, hence foraying into the Northeast Asian market.
The cloud-based SaaS technology provider has set up a sales and customer support team in South Korea. It has also partnered with Seoul-based Digibase, which provides professional media services for live video encoding and file-based transcoding.
Eunsook Wi, director of sales & business development at Amagi will lead the business development in the region. Amagi has about 4-5 clients in the country, which it plans to increase by about 30% by end of 2023.
"The global popularity of content from South Korea makes it an attractive destination for media technology providers like Amagi. Additionally, broadcasters in North East Asia are increasingly preferring to move away from hardware-based broadcasting and adopt the flexibility and agility of the cloud. Amagi hopes to partner with Korean broadcasters and content producers in their digital growth journey," Wi said.
The Bengaluru-based startup has a presence in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Melbourne, Seoul, Singapore, and broadcast operations in New Delhi. It also has an innovation centre in Bengaluru.
“We believe that Northeast Asia, particularly South Korea, is a promising market for our cloud-led innovations as content owners from the region seek to leverage the global popularity of their content and expand their presence across international markets,” said Srinivasan KA, co-founder, Amagi.
“Free ad-supported streaming TV (Fast) penetration in South Korea has just started picking up and there is a tremendous opportunity for growth,” he added.
Amagi was founded in 2008 by Baskar Subramanian, Srinivasan K.A. and Srividhya Srinivasan. It helps media companies create, distribute and monetize streamed content across cable, satellite, and Over-the-top media service.
The company turned a unicorn in March this year, after it raised $95 million in a funding round led by Accel, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures. Amagi was last valued at over $1 billion.
At the time, it said it had reported 108% yearly growth in revenue. In FY21, it reported a consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 219.29 crore and a profit of Rs 20.7 crore, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.
VCCircle in August reported that the startup was in talks to raise $100 million from private equity giants General Atlantic and TPG–a round that would bring its valuation to $1.4 billion.
Amagi’s platform connects content owners and distribution channels. The startup has a client list that includes media giants such as NBCUniversal, CBS, USA Today, and Japan’s Rakuten Group.
It increased its customer count by 59% in 2021 and is now spread over 40 countries. Amagi supports 700+ content brands, 800+ playout chains, and over 2100 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries.