An innovative young Cork company that produces broadcast quality high-definition and royalty-free film footage and animation has secured €350,000 in seed funding from the Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund and Enterprise Ireland.
The fund via Kernel Capital committed €250,000 and the remainder of the funds were raised through Enterprise Ireland.
The announcement was made in Cork by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe TD, who recently confirmed an additional allocation of €55m in Government funds for investment in high-potential start-ups.
“The Bank of Ireland Seed Fund demonstrates Bank of Ireland’s strong commitment to support dynamic, indigenous and innovative companies,” said Donal Duffy, head of Enterprise Ireland Relations, Bank of Ireland.
“We are pleased to provide a capital investment to Wavebreak Media, one such company, which will enable them to drive forward their growth aspirations across international markets,” Duffy added.
Wavebreak Media’s background
Founded in 2006, the former InterTradeIreland Seedcorn national finalist Wavebreak boasts a catalogue of more than 13,000 high quality HD stock videos and 25,000 animations/photographs.
Wavebreak’s stock media, which can be instantly downloaded via the internet, is experiencing average customer download rates of 15,000 times per month globally.
“Wavebreak Media is an excellent example of a high-potential smart economy start-up that has generated significant traction in acquiring tier one international clients, such as FoxSports, Channel 4, MTV and the ITN group,” said Orla Rimmington, operations director at Kernel Capital.
“This investment will enable Wavebreak to further capitalise on this traction and will serve as a springboard to the next levels of sales, marketing and employment.”
Wavebreak sells its stock media through an extensive global distribution network that includes some of the industry’s largest distributors, such as Getty Images and Corbis Motion.
“For the past four years, since our foundation, we have continuously focused on building our catalogue, team and international customer base,” said Wavebreak’s CEO Sean Prior.
“This investment validates the strength of our business model and will allow us to further strengthen our core offering,” Prior added.
