Best Flourishing Digital Media Startups will be discussed in this article. The way we consume media has been transformed by the internet. There are now hundreds of news websites and apps with information that has been selected by algorithms in place of the newspaper. Podcasts, which cover tens of thousands of themes and every imaginable specialized interest, have replaced radio. There are streaming platforms that provide many hours of free or inexpensive programming in place of costly cable TV.
Whatever its form, digital media is a very profitable industry. With the goal of bringing you 20 varied digital media firms that are reshaping news, entertainment, and advertising, we looked into trending businesses across several media sectors.
Top 20 Flourishing Digital Media Startups In 2023
In this article, you can know about Media Startups here are the details below;
1. Uscreen
- 5-year increase in searches: 433%
- Growth of searches is exponential.
- founded in 2014
- Place: Washington, D.C.
- Finance: Not disclosed
What they do: Uscreen is a platform for video monetization that enables producers and companies to market and sell their own video content on branded websites and mobile apps. The platform allows users to establish and run their own streaming services by providing features including video hosting, money processing, subscription administration, and audience statistics. Uscreen is a popular alternative for those wishing to monetise their video content and create their own online video enterprises due to its user-friendly interface and configurable design options.
2. Vietcetera
- 5-year rise in searches: 1675%
- Growth of searches is exponential.
- Founded in 2016
- Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is the location.
- $2.7M (Series A) in funding
What they do: Vietcetera is a news company that caters to a monthly readership of about 20 million Vietnamese people worldwide. The startup provides written, video, and audio material across numerous areas in two languages. A $2.7M pre-Series A financing from investors including Go-Ventures, Genesia Ventures, and Z Venture Capital will be used by the company to broaden its initial emphasis on Gen Z and millennials. This is another Media Startups.
3. Restream
- 5-year growth in searches: 242%
- Growth of searches is exponential.
- founded in 2014
- Austin, Texas is the place.
- $53.4M in funding (Series A)
What they do: Restream is a social video broadcasting platform that is utilized to share material by the media, brands, celebrities, and more. Customers can pre-record streaming videos, exchange material over numerous networks at once, and do other things using the platform. Restream’s most recent $50M round occurred in August 2020, when the company was valued at more than $17M.
4. Songtradr
- 5-year rise in searches: 60%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- founded in 2014
- Santa Monica, California is the location.
- $101.2M in funding (Series D)
What they do: Songtradr is a platform for music licensing that connects musicians and music producers with chances to monetise their music through licensing agreements for movies, TV series, advertisements, and other media projects. The platform provides music supervisors and producers with a simple interface for uploading and managing music as well as robust search and discovery capabilities to help them identify the best tracks for their projects. Songtradr is a one-stop shop for music licensing and monetization because it offers solutions for managing rights and royalties as well. This is another Media Startups.
5. Podscribe
- 5-year rise in searches: -100%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- Founded in 2017
- New York, New York is the location.
- $500K in funding (convertible note)
What they do: Podscribe is a startup that provides podcast producers with transcribing services. The business promotes precise AI-powered transcriptions and provides extra services like an SEO-friendly feed for transcripts. In 2016, Podscribe, originally a provider of podcast players, switched to its current services.
6. SmartNews
- 5-year rise in searches: -52%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- founded in 2012
- Location: Japan, Tokyo
- $410.3M in funding (Series F)
What they do: SmartNews, a Japanese news startup, use technology to provide readers with powerful and significant content. The app saw a monthly user increase of twofold in 2020 thanks to its popularity among readers in Japan and elsewhere. The “double unicorn” firm has also raised a huge sum of over $400M with a recent $230M Series F in September 2021. The leadership of SmartNews plans to further expand into the American market with this investment.
7. Data Skrive
- 5-year rise in searches: -100%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- Founded in 2013
- Seattle, Washington is the place.
- $6.3M (Series A) in funding
What they do: Data Skrive is a platform that uses technology to create SEO-optimized content for sporting goods retailers, bookmakers, and more. Data Skrive was founded in 2013 by founders Greg Bennett and Jordan Nilsen as a media firm and publisher. In 2017, as a solution to their own scaling issue, they transitioned into content automation. Data Skrive reported in October 2021 that Bettor Capital and other investors had contributed over $6M.
8. Curastory
- 5-year rise in searches: 0%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- founded in 2019
- New York, New York is the location.
- Financed with $6.3M (Seed)
What they do: By collaborating with commercial sponsors like Beyond Meat and others, Curastory assists producers in creating and monetizing video content. To make it simpler for student-athletes to monetise their material, company CEO Tiffany Kelly, a former Sports Analytics Associate at ESPN, started the business in 2019. She raised $2.1 million in H2 2021 and formed a collaboration with the National Basketball Players Association, among other accomplishments. This is another Media Startups.
9. Podfund
- 5-year rise in searches: 0%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- Established in 2018
- Massachusetts’ Sommerville is the location.
- Unknown Source of Funding (Seed)
What they do: The TechNexus Venture Collaborative-run investment company Podfund specializes in investing podcast media startups. For podcast creators with a proven track record and a strategy for the investment, the organization offers investments of up to about $150,000 as well as useful business resources. Podfund, which has secured a little over $2M in seed money for itself, has helped podcasts including Stacey Book’s Fugitive Media, theNewsWorthy from Erica Mandy, Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries, and theNewsWorthy.
10. Fanatiz
- 5-year growth in searches: 322%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- Founded in 2017
- Location: Florida, Miami
- $17M in funding (Series B)
What they do: Fanatiz is a digital media company that specializes in offering sports content on a variety of platforms, including TV, mobile devices, and desktop computers. Users can customize their subscription based on their preferred sports team while seeing worldwide content. Early in 2020, the business announced a $10M Series A fundraising round with aspirations to grow internationally.
11. Asian Boss
- 5-year rise in searches: 15%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- Founded in 2013
- Location: South Korea, Seoul
- $1.5M (Series A) in funding
What they do: An international audience of millennials is served by the South Korean digital media portal Asian Boss. The company seeks to provide its audience with a realistic vision of Asian life, news, and culture. It has viewers in over 130 countries and more than 4.5 million admirers. When Asian Boss faced a potential closure in January 2021, they later launched a crowdfunding effort to rescue their company, which succeeded in generating more than AU$700,000.
12. Philo
- 5-year rise in searches: 73%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- founded in 2010
- Location: California, San Francisco
- $133.2M in funding (Series D)
What they do: Philo, a newcomer in the digital media space, provides a reasonably priced streaming service for media related to entertainment. Philo offers its consumers a wide range of episodes, movies, and sporting events with a focus on live TV and on-demand content from leading cable networks. Cord cutters searching for a cost-effective substitute for traditional cable TV frequently choose Philo because of its user-friendly platform, which enables simultaneous viewing on numerous devices. This is another Media Startups.
13. Lingokids
- 5-year growth in searches: 344%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- founded in 2014
- Location: Spain’s Madrid
- $62.5M in funding (Series C)
What they do: For youngsters between the ages of 2 and 8, Lingokids is an interactive platform for language acquisition. For young language learners, the platform provides a variety of games, songs, & other activities to make learning a new language enjoyable and engaging. Lingokids offers tailored learning plans and progress monitoring to support kids in learning at their own pace and covers a variety of languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin.
14. Streamlabs
- 5-year rise in searches: 100%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- founded in 2014
- Location: California, San Francisco
- $36M in funding (Series B)
What they do: The software package Streamlabs offers live streaming and content creation tools, particularly for gamers and other online content producers. The platform’s features, which include notifications, overlays, chatbots, and contribution options, make it simple for users to set up and modify their streams. To assist streamers in expanding their following and making money from their content, Streamlabs also provides analytics and monetization alternatives. This is another Media Startups.
15. Greenfly
- 5-year rise in searches: 0%
- Growth status of searches: Peaked
- founded in 2014
- Santa Monica, California is the location.
- Funding: $22.9M (Unknown Series)
What they do: Greenfly assists companies in gathering and utilizing digital content from supporters of their brands and other sources. Applications include collecting commercials from TV or movie stars, assisting corporations in working with brand ambassadors, and advancing charitable causes. More than 500 businesses use the startup, which was created by former MLB player Shawn Green and Harvard Law School alum Daniel Kirschner. It has generated over 2B social engagements. Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns and several venture capital firms both invested in Greenfly during the summer of 2021.
16. O9 Solutions
- 5-year increase in searches: 800%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- Founded in 2009
- The city of Dallas, Texas
- $417M in funding (Series D)
What they do: O9 Solutions is an AI-powered platform that offers enterprises operating throughout the digital supply chain comprehensive planning and operational solutions. The platform provides sophisticated analytics, automation, and optimization capabilities to assist companies in streamlining decision-making and increasing operational effectiveness. O9 Solutions, a leader in the field of digital transformation and planning, provides services to a wide range of initiatives, including retail, consumer products, manufacturing, and logistics, among others.
17. Artlist
- 5-year increase in searches: 800%
- Growth of searches is exponential.
- founded in 2016
- Israel’s Tel Aviv is the place.
- Funding: $48M (Unknown Series)
What they do: Artlist offers ad campaigns, movies, and other digital media apps with commercial-free background music and sound effects. Filmmaker Sam Newton’s travelogue 3 Years, 30 Countries and a Mercedes-Benz advertisement are examples of works produced using Artlist. Midway through 2021, Artlist hired a number of new executives following a sizable fundraising round in 2020. Asaf Porat, a seasoned product manager with prior experience at Wix and Fiverr, accepted the role of VP of Product, while Ilil Livnat, a lawyer with a background in media, joined as General Counsel.
18. Bluepad
- 5-year rise in searches: 50%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- Founded in 2020
- India’s Bangalore is the place.
- $217,8K was allocated (Pre-Seed)
What they do: Bluepad is a firm that enables people to share news, articles, and other written materials with a large audience in the vernacular Indian language. The company was founded by Devakrishna Asokar, Sanjyot Bhosale, and Kishore Garimella to provide internet resources for sharing and consuming textual media to speakers of regional Indian languages. Early in October 2021, the firm obtained a pre-seed round of funding from investors totaling close to $250K. This is another Media Startups.
19. Nextup
- 5-year rise in searches: 32%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- Founded in 2016
- Location: England’s London
- Financed with $1.9M in equity crowdsourcing
What they do: Josie Long, Dane Baptiste, Jordan Brookes, and other comedians have specials and shows on Nextup, a British subscription-based comedy streaming service. The firm not only received venture capital backing, but it also exceeded its £150K CrowdCube crowdfunding target by over £100K. This is another Media Startups.
20. Zencastr
- 5-year rise in searches: 157%
- Growth status of searches: regular
- Founded in 2014
- Salt Lake City, Utah is the location.
- $4.6M (Series A) in funding
What they do: Through a beta program, the podcasting platform Zencastr enables creators to generate high-quality audio and video recordings. According to reports, 6% of podcasters in the globe subscribe to Zencastr, which was bootstrapped up to a $4.6M Series A financing that was revealed in early 2021.
Conclusion
Although there are many different types of businesses on this list, three distinct themes stand out: specialized or free streaming services, businesses focused on podcasts, and startups for international news. According on search interest, this set of startups has a chance to have a big impact on the digital media industry.
