Joyus, the startup that makes videos for online shopping focused on fashion beauty and health products, has garnered $24 million in new investments, the company said in a June 4 release.
This financing round was led by Marker LLC and Steamboat Ventures, a venture capital firm that is affiliated with the Walt Disney Co. Other investors included already existing backers of the startup, including Accel Partners, InterWest and Time Warner Investments. The latest capital infusion brings the total amount of funds raised by the company to $44 million.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what Joyus has accomplished, and we’ve only just started,” said Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, founder and CEO of Joyus. “The continued shift of users towards 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.”
In tandem with the capital announcement, Joyus disclosed a number of new leadership appointments in its content, merchandise and operations, including David Lazar as president and chief customer office, Kathy Samuels as Chief Content Officer, Jennifer Sharp as VP of Partnerships, Sandra Szahun as head of sales, and Jonathan Hoeh as VP of operations.
According to Re/code, Cassidy said the new funds will help Joyus expand studio space with an eye on better quality and quantity of videos.
“Investing in Joyus was a no-brainer for Steamboat,” said Alex Hartigan, Partner at Steamboat Ventures. “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.”
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Re/code also reported that Joyus seeks distribution deals for its videos online. Roughly three quarters of the video views stem from Joyus.com, or through online publishers including People and AOL. Joyus has a revenue sharing agreement in place with such publishers. The revenue model ties into sales spurred through the videos as Joyus makes and takes a 40 percent to 60 percent cut of the sales of products spotlighted in its videos.
In explaining the increased online initiative, Cassidy said “Video viewing is fragmenting, not consolidating. …Now you have to think about Facebook … AOL, Yahoo and YouTube.”
Joyus also said that roughly 35 percent of its revenues come from mobile. The Joyus mobile app users, the company noted, typically spend more time and money on video than do equivalent desktop and other mobile Web users.
“It is not easy to monetize online video, but Joyus makes it look easy,” said Rick Scanlon, Partner at Marker LLC. “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.”
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