media streamer Plex raised new capital. The company, which began as a media agency startup, has transformed over the years to become a one-stop shop for all your media, including ad-supported streaming, which now accounts for much of its revenue growth. The new round, which has yet to be disclosed, was initially said to be larger than Plex’s $50 million development round it closed a few years ago, but now we understand it’s $40 million, a Plex spokesperson confirmed. The funds will help propel the company toward profitability, which is expected by the end of the year or soon after.
Plex CEO Keith Valory confirmed the round closed this month, but could not disclose Plex’s new valuation. While he joked that he likes to think of himself as a unicorn, Plex’s true valuation is unknown, as the company hasn’t raised outside capital in some time, preferring instead to work with its existing set of investors.
The same goes for Plex’s new investment, as it’s an internal round that includes existing Series C investors — lead investor Intercap and Kleiner Perkins. (Technically, it’s Plex’s C-3 series, if you’re counting.) The size of the round will be revealed later via title filings.
“We have the most supportive investors of anyone,” Valory said. “I feel like funding was never a concern for us,” he added.
The fundraising follows a series of changes to Plex’s core product over the years, which has evolved from a software platform that consumers use to organize their home media collections to one that has many facets. Today, Plex users can watch free ad-supported shows and movies, listen to music, stream live TV channels or their own media, and more, including discovering new things to watch. Recently, the company also rolled out social features, allowing Plex users to choose a feature that monitors their viewing and shares it with friends.
This feature will be further developed during the year. Plex says it aims to expand community capabilities for both content owners and users through the use of public pages that will give content owners a greater stake in the conversations happening around their movies and shows.
Another planned feature, announced at CES, is the upcoming launch of Plex’s TVOD marketplace — an online storefront that will allow users to rent shows and movies from top studios.
To date, however, Plex’s ad-supported streaming is what helps Plex grow its revenue. Although Plex was affected by the market downturn, which led to layoffs, Plex’s ad revenue grew by nearly 45% in 2023 and overall business grew by 30%, the company tells us. Engagement and usage have also increased. The company is still on track to be profitable by the end of 2024 or early next year, Valory noted.
“We are a leader in this market. And we’re at least in the top five, if not higher in that area, and we feel like we’re doing very, very well,” he said.
As a result of Plex’s ability to track media discovery behavior and user consumption across platforms and services, the company has a unique perspective from a data perspective. This will also be the focus of her future business initiatives.
“One of the things we’ve already started to demonstrate in 2023 is that we absolutely can monetize some of that data…in a very privacy-friendly way. No personally identifiable information is used,” Valory said. “We’ve already proven we could make money from it this year, so in 2024 we’re putting more wood behind that arrow. And arguably, even though our current business is already growing 30%-40% annually, this could depress it in two to three years. This is a really big opportunity in the market,” he added.
1/249/24, 7:10 p.m. etc: Updated with round size. round size confirmed by Plex
