UK film store We Are Colony seeks £0.5m in funding

Sarah Tierney

UK-based online film store, We Are Colony, has launched a new funding round and is seeking £500,000 (€640,000) to grow its grow global streaming catalogue.

We Are Colony aims to raise “at least” £500,000 in equity crowdfunding campaign via Seedrs – a service that lets investors buy into startup companies – and already has already received £135,000 from 18 investors.

The London-based firm, which launched in public beta in February 2015 and now claims customers from 115 countries worldwide, said that the crowdfunding campaign will accelerate the company “to the next stage of growth”.

With the new funding, We Are Colony said it plans acquire 100 new titles in 2016 and is working with more than 40 licensors, including BBC Films, Picturehouse Entertainment, Alchemy and Film4. The firm has already received £1.4 million in funding prior to the new round.

We Are Colony is a store that lets users buy and rent film titles, along with extra content. The company said it aims to “revive the lost premium experience of the DVD special edition in the ubiquitous age of Netflix and Amazon.”

“Online streaming is an exciting, rapidly-evolving sector but, as a consumer, the experience has not moved on. We are building a global destination for engaged audiences, and know that film fans want earlier, deeper, behind-the-scenes access to titles and talent that they love,” said We Are Colony founder and CEO, Sarah Tierney.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth and appetite for the platform since we launched the beta last February. Now we want to focus on more exclusive deals and building relationships with the major studios, to help expand the catalogue.”