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RAPAPORT... Joyus, a direct response online video shopping platform, secured $24 million in new financing, led by Marker LLC and Steamboat Ventures, which is a capital firm affiliated with The Walt Disney Company. Current investors, Accel Partners, InterWest and Time Warner Investments, also participated in the round, according to the company. So far, Joyus has raised $44 million. The shopping channel will use the capital to invest in product, engineering and expanded video distribution.
In addition, Joyus appointed David Lazar as president and chief customer officer, Kathy Samuels as chief content officer, Jennifer Sharp as vice president of partnerships, Sandra Szahun as head of sales and branded content and Jonathan Hoeh as vice president of operations.
"I couldn't be more proud of what Joyus has accomplished and we've only just started," said Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, the founder and CEO of Joyus. "The continued shift of users toward consuming online video across all devices and all genres of content is driving a large scale opportunity in lifestyle programming and monetization through commerce. We have built a deeply engaging content and commerce experience for consumers, our partners are seeing off-the-chart ROI in our videos and we're attracting world class talent and investors." While Joyus is a private firm and doesn't disclose sales figures, it did confirm that in 2014, Joyus drove 99 cents in direct commerce revenue per view (RPV), which the company stated was up to 20 times higher than comparable current pre-roll video CPMs. Approximately 35 percent of Joyus revenue comes from mobile devices and Joyus mobile app users consume "disproportionately more video than equivalent desktop and mobile web users," Cassidy said. Alex Hartigan, a partner at Steamboat Ventures, said, "Investing in Joyus was a no-brainer for Steamboat. As a global media company, Disney and Steamboat are always looking for the next generation of media innovation and Joyus has created it with a powerful new programming and business model for online video. We are very happy to be part of the Joyus family." Rick Scanlon, a partner with Marker, added, "It is not easy to monetize online video, but Joyus makes it look easy. The team at Joyus is built to take this model even further and we are very excited about what the future holds for this company and anyone involved." Joyus offers more than 500 brands that offer products such as jewelry and watches, beauty, fashion, health and lifestyle items.
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