Listed cloud video editing platform Blackbird has announced the placing of new shares to raise approximately £5.54m.
The shares have been placed with existing and new institutional investors, including existing shareholders, certain Directors and family of the Directors.
The new proceeds will be used by the firm to increase marketing expenditure in the U.S. and grow its presence there on the back of recent contract wins, which include recently announced US media giant Bloomberg Media.
It said it will bolster its US sales, operations, supports and R&D teams, continue to develop its product offering and strengthen its balance sheet, facilitating longer-term deals with new customers.
Blackbird was founded in 2001 and offered a codec for compression of video files.
Of the funds raised, approximately £1.49m is conditional on the approval of shareholders, at a general meeting next month.
CEO Ian McDonough joined the firm in 2017. It has since focused on taking its browser-based editing suite to professionals and semi-professionals. Its international client-base now includes broadcasters working on live sports and live news.
“These are very exciting times for Blackbird as we gain serious traction with some of the world’s largest and most high-profile content producers,” said McDonough.
“Our US focus is really bearing fruit as demonstrated by the longer term deals at the US Department of State and the recent announcement of our integration across the global Bloomberg operation.
“We hope this will continue to blossom as our OEM strategy really takes off. Early signs with IMG, Deltatre and particularly TownNews show that they can scale up very quickly.