Up Pictures, a Beijing-based web TV and film studio made an announcement yesterday that it has raised a series A funding at RMB100 million (about US$15 million) led by Legend Capital with the participation of Beijing-based Junyuan Capital.
This round follows the startup’s angel round led by Beijing-based movie group Huayi Brothers Media Co, within 23 days of its inception in which it claimed to be valued at RMB400 million (about US$58 million).
However, following this latest fundraising round, the company stands at a valuation of RMB1.4 billion (about US$200 million).
Founded in 2015, Up Pictures focuses on the suspense adventure movie genres, involving itself in film production and development, set investment, intellectual property (IP) incubation, artist management, market planning, as well as animation
Its production includes the popular web television series Ghost Blows Out the Light which is based on a fantasy novel series about a team of grave robbers seeking hidden treasure. This series alone accounted for half of the company’s total RMB40 million (about US$5 million) profit last year.
Other productions by the company also include animation series such as 80℃ and Le Roi et l’oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird); movies such as Three Body Problem, New York New York, and Mr. Six; as well as original web series including The Adventures In Wumen.
With the latest fundraising, Up Pictures will use the capital to finance three book-to-film adaptation by Tianxia Bachang including The Freak Neighbour, A Date With Fate, and Bing Jia Mi Jue (The secret of the soldiers).
This comes as the second web TV and video producer to raise venture funding within a week after Le Yong Pictures, a video firm established by LeEco founder’s wife raised its US$174 million series A.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
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