Purely Capital, the UK startup that has launched a FinTech (financial services technology) receivables platform allowing rights owners to cashflow license fee payments, says it is has secured a $150M institutional funding line that will allow it to operate at ‘bank level’ pricing.
The backer is a big-ticket financial investor that has opted to keep its name out of press. The company has, however, made significant moves in the sector in the last 12 months.
To date, Purely Capital has financed more than $35M in deals, buying long dated income from companies including Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Viacom, HBO and Starz. The model is a technology-driven solution to automate and streamline the financing of long-dated entertainment receivables.
With the trend of global media and tech companies spending billions on content, often in structured deals that are paid out over the course of years, Purely says its platform provides a solution to fix cashflow issues for distributors and producers. The company takes a small percentage of each deal it cashflows.
Finch Capital, an early-stage FinTech venture capital firm, backed a 2019 equity funding round of Purely, and plans to do a further raise in 2020.
Purely was found by Wayne Marc Godfrey, the former founder of UK financier Fyzz Facility whose credits span more than 100 feature films including box office hit 47 Meters Down and more recently Best Sellers staring Aubrey Plaza and Michael Caine, which wrapped production last month. Also at Purely are Chief Financial Officer Stuart Stanton, Chief Legal Officer Dan Abrams, Chief Technology Officer Dean Chapman, and Head of Product Sashi Arnold.
Godfrey said, “With more high-level buyers than ever hungry for content, it has arguably never been a better time to be producing and distributing film and TV content. While the unprecedented spend by streamers and broadcasters of more than $120BN last year is impressive, rights owners are being forced to wait two to five years for licensing contracts to be paid out, putting companies under immense financial strain. We built Purely Capital as a solution to this emerging problem, giving content owners access to their licensing income now. Purely Capital buys contracted revenues today and we then wait for the years of quarterly payments from the licensor so that our customer doesn’t have to.”
“Purely Capital is at the centre of the entertainment industry that is truly being disrupted by the volume of content that is being produced and the way we are consuming it. Unfortunately, financing options for content and license owners in this changing landscape remains archaic and inefficient. This is where we believe Wayne and his team have the experience and ability to provide the best experience and most competitive price for global entertainment rights owners,” added Finch Capital’s Aman Ghei.