Movie rental company Seventymm has raised Rs 50 crore in funding with plans to expand to 40 cities in two years. The latest infusion of capital from venture capital firm NEA-Indo US Ventures takes the VC-funded company’s total capital investment to Rs 90 crore.
According to Subhanker Sarker, COO, Seventymm, most of the investment will go into expanding the reach of the business and hiring staff to deliver the movies picked from their online media and to provide customer service, including assisting customers in shortlisting movie titles. Currently, a team of 400 people serves consumers in its six cities of operation — Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh.
The business, which claims a customer base of 70,000, and is adding 7,000 consumers a month, has an average revenue per user of Rs 250, says Sarker. It aims to reach four million members in the next five years with presence in 40 cities in two years. On the immediate roadmap are Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune.
Seventymm.com offers more than 18,000 titles covering Hindi, English, 11 regional languages, World Cinema as well as television programmes and documentaries. This is likely to go up to 25,000 titles in a year’s time with the addition of both new releases and old movies.
Speaking about the competition from other organised players, Sarker held that besides BigFlix of Anil Ambani group, the company is currently facing strong competition from mom-and-pop operators.
