The streaming service Plex has secured new funding. The company, which initially focused on organizing media, has evolved into a comprehensive platform offering ad-supported streaming, a significant driver of its revenue growth. The new round of funding, the amount of which has not been disclosed, surpasses the $50 million growth round Plex secured a few years ago. It will support the company’s efforts to achieve profitability, anticipated by the end of the year or shortly thereafter.
Plex CEO Keith Valory confirmed the recent funding round, but did not reveal the company’s new valuation. While he metaphorically referred to Plex as a unicorn, stating the actual valuation remains undisclosed due to the company’s lack of recent external fundraising activity, choosing to rely on its existing investor base instead.
This latest investment is part of an insider round that involves existing Series C investors – lead investor Intercap and Kleiner Perkins. Technically, it’s Plex’s Series C-3. The round’s size will be disclosed later through securities filings.
“We have the most supportive investors of any,” Valroy said. “I feel like funding has never been a concern of ours,” he added.
The fundraising reflects Plex’s evolution from a software platform for organizing home media collections to a multifaceted service. Today, Plex users can access free ad-supported shows, movies, music, live TV channels, personal media, and more, as well as discover new content to watch. The company has also been working on incorporating social features, enabling users to share their viewing activity with friends.
This feature will be further developed in the upcoming year. Plex plans to expand the community capabilities for both content owners and users by introducing public pages that offer content owners an increased role in conversations about their movies and shows.
Another upcoming feature, announced at CES, is Plex’s TVOD marketplace, an online platform that will enable users to rent shows and movies from top studios.
Thus far, ad-supported streaming has been instrumental in Plex’s revenue growth. Although Plex was affected by the market downturn and underwent layoffs, the company reported that its ad revenue increased by nearly 45% in 2023, with overall business growing by 30%. User engagement and usage have also shown an upward trend. Valory emphasized that the company remains on track to achieve profitability by the end of 2023 or early 2024.
“We’re a leading player in this market. We’re among the top five, if not higher, in this space, and we believe we’re performing really well,” he stated.
Due to its ability to track users’ media discovery and consumption behavior across platforms and services, Plex possesses a unique perspective from a data standpoint. This will also be a focal point for its future business initiatives.
“We’ve already begun to demonstrate in 2023 that we can effectively monetize some of that data in a privacy-friendly manner. No personally identifiable information is being used,” Valroy explained. “We’ve already proven we can generate revenue from this in 2023, so in 2024, we will further focus on this. Even though our current business is already growing at a rate of 30%-40% annually, this could potentially surpass it in two to three years. It’s a significant market opportunity,” he added.
