Youku
SinoSteel Plaza, 11th Floor, 8 Haidian Street, Beijing, Haidian District, 100080, China
Overview
Youku is a Chinese video-sharing website that enables users to search, view, and share high-quality video content across multiple devices. Employing the tri-networks integration model, Youku’s online video content ranges from user-generated content and self-produced serials to licensed professional content. Its platform offers a space for individuals and institutions to upload and share their treasured moments, independent films, viral videos, and other creations. Youku was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange on December 18, 2010. As of 2007, the company had raised over $40 million in funds, which came from existing investors, including Maverick Capital, Brookside Capital (an affiliate of Bain Capital, LLC), Sutter Hill Ventures, Farallon Capital, and China-based Chengwei Ventures, LLC. In the same year, AC Nelson Co. announced that Youku's overall video viewing (VV) rate had exceeded 100 million, and the daily UV rate exceeded 12 million. On March 12, 2012, Youku reached an agreement to acquire Tudou in a stock-for-stock transaction, the new entity being named Youku Tudou, Inc. Youku's major competitors include Tencent Video, 163 Video, and Sohu Video.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 0
Sector focus
- Broadcasting
- Media and Entertainment
- Photography
- Video
Investment portfolio
- Baobab Studios
Participated · Series B · Oct 2016
Baobab Studios creates character-driven virtual reality animated experiences, emphasizing storytelling over technical novelty. Its notable work includes the 6-minute VR short “Invasion!”, which attracted Hollywood attention and is being turned into a feature film by Roth Kirschenbaum. The company announced a next project titled “Asteroids!” and says its core tech will enable new storytelling techniques for VR creators. Baobab has partnered with major platform players—previous investors include Samsung and HTC—and its title “Invasion!” was included on the PlayStation VR demo disc. The studio has about 20 employees and is expanding its executive team, adding former Pixar/Dreamworks exec Larry Cutler as CTO and bringing Within CEO Chris Milk onto its advisory board. Financially, Baobab has raised a total of $31 million to date following its latest round and positions storytelling as central to driving VR adoption as hardware becomes widely available. Baobab Studios is a US virtual reality animation content and technology company that creates story- and character-driven cinematic experiences. It produces animated short films for VR platforms; its first short, Invasion, is available in Samsung Gear VR. The company plans to work with HTC to distribute its movies on the Vive platform in the coming year. On June 12, 2015 Baobab raised $6m in a Series A funding round. Backers included Comcast Ventures, Samsung Ventures, HTC, Advancit Capital, Chernin Group, TheBoxGroup, Peter Thiel, Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and other angel investors. Leadership includes Maureen Fan (CEO), Eric Darnell (Chief Creative Officer) and Michael Hutchinson (Chief Scientist Officer).
Team
No current team members are available.