(IBC), a US-based internet protocol television (IPTV) services startup dealing with Bollywood and other South Asian content, has raised Rs 2.5 crore ($0.5 million) in a series A round of funding from its existing investor Silver Stone Capital and also from four angel investors who are based in Washington D.C. The two-year-old firm will use the fund to roll out its services under Vibble TV and start its operations in the US market next month.
The latest round is part of a larger funding round of $2 million of which $1.5 million is yet to be raised.
The company will add relevant content to its line-up and initially target the three-million-plus South Asians in the USA. Later, it will launch its services in other ethnic markets, followed by a general rollout in the US market.
IBC has been set up by Suresh Kadagala who is also the CEO. An alumnus of Loyola College in Maryland, Kadagala previously worked with Lucent Technologies and Electronic Data Systems.
Vibble TVs’ set top box is in beta test and it will beam entertainment content of interest via Zee TV and 60 other channels in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Urdu languages. Vibble TV will cover various genres such as movies, music, drama, comedy, food, travel, news, religion and sports.
In addition, subscribers can access over 500 Bollywood movies and the entire library of Amar Chitra Katha, an animated series of Indian fables, through its video-on-demand (VOD) service. The company will deliver the content directly to subscribers’ smartphones, Tablets, computers and televisions. Its VOD content will initially focus on Hindi, Tamil and Telugu movies in two main genres – general entertainment and kids’ entertainment.
According to its website, the startup will offer nearly 100 TV channels and Bollywood VOD (it claims that this is far more than what is currently available from traditional providers or cable TV services in the USA) at subscription prices at least 20 per cent lower than the current ones.
