Member Article

Newcastle tech startup Reframed.TV: the ‘Pinterest for video moments’?

A Newcastle-based startup that plans to revolutionise how we consume video is to create five new jobs over two years after exceeding expectations of seed investment by £78,000 - with the majority of funds from the North East.

The completion of Reframed.TV’s second round of investment, which totals £328,000, comes from returning funders angel investor Doug Scott and venture capital firms IP Group plc and Northstar Ventures through the Finance For Business North East Technology Fund.

In addition, a new funder is dotcom entrepreneur Steve Pankhurst, co-founder of Friends Reunited.

This raise brings the total invested in Reframed.TV to over half a million pounds and values the company at £1.1m.

The money secures the development of the service for the next two years and allows co-founders Kev Price and Jo York to expand their team with developer and sales roles in their mission to make video truly social.

And the company has wasted no time in hiring a talented new front-end developer, Phil Jeffes to develop the look and feel of Reframed while Paul Whitehead, an angel investor with vast commercial experience, including USwitch.com, Channel 4 and BSkyB, has come on board as a non-executive director.

Dubbed ‘Pinterest for video moments’ and ‘second chance Twitter’, Reframed.TV allows users to sync comments with specific moments of video and has attracted interest from Twitter UK and broadcasters, including BBC, Channel 4 and ITV.

Steve Pankhurst heard about the company when he was mentoring Ignite 100’s new batch of startups at Campus North – the home for North East startups and where Reframed is based.

After a meeting with Kev and Jo in London, and a look at the business plan, he was in.

He said: “It’s a great idea and the business plan is sound. The team is ambitious and passionate, they work hard and just get on with it and I’m happy to support them.”

Kev, who is a son of Newcastle, said: “I love that we’ve managed to raise this money in the North East. The funds have been a great support and the draw of Ignite and Campus North has made getting in front of Angel investors so much easier than it could have been.

“It’s good to have Steve’s support as both a funder and a mentor to the team. There are some great things happening in the North East and we’re proud to be part of it.”

The power of Reframed.TV’s contextual conversations lies in its sentiment and thematic analysis from comments, providing new insights, including search terms into the key video moments - vital for broadcasters and content creators.

Kev and Jo took Reframed from concept to market trial within three months at the end of 2013 through Newcastle’s technology accelerator Ignite100.

Since then, they’ve doubled their team to four, made the finals at Thinking Digital 2014 - where Kev announced the use of Twitter Player cards - won Best New Business at the North East Women’s Entrepreneur Awards, were shortlisted for a Women of the Future award, and invited to discuss Reframed with a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Jo York said: “Now that the raise is over we’re excited to be pushing on with our plans and building more cool stuff. We’ve got some very exciting developments in the near future and we’ll be looking to find the right people from the local tech community to bring into the team to get us there.”

Ian Wilson, Investment Manager at IP Group plc said: “Reframed.TV is establishing a good reputation - and excitement - in the market place and we’re pleased to be able to continue our support with further investment that will secure the company’s future for another two years and bring jobs to the North East and the technology sector.”