News
27 September
WIN MAKES ITS FIRST INVESTMENT OF $900'000 IN THE WORLD LEADER “360 VUZ”
360 VUZ (www.360vuz.com) won a place among the finalists and with it the right to receive an investment from Webit Investment Network - WIN (www.webit.network) within one of the largest global competitions for fast growing innovative companies - Founders Games (www.foundersgames.org) of Webit (www.webit.org).
Over 250 international investors from some of the most active and successful venture capital funds evaluated the companies in 5 consecutive rounds with only 5 out of over 3000 participants, who reached the finals (only 0.15% of all participants). The final round was held live in Sofia on June 28, 2022 within the Summer Edition of Webit Impact Forum and it was chaired by the legendary Tim Draper (early investor in Tesla, Skype, Twitter, SpaceX, Hotmail, Baidu and many others) and other 4 top international investors.
"360 VUZ" is a global leader and has the largest library of 360° video content in the world. This content is not only extremely engaging but it also attracts more and more subscribers and viewers around the world every day. With this it is about to become critically important for the development of virtual reality and the so-called Metaverse, which is becoming an increasingly hot topic and attracting billions of investments.
Virtual reality is expected to contribute $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to PwC.
"360 VUZ" is a company founded in 2017 in one of the fastest growing web3 and Metaverse innovation hubs in the world - Dubai. So far, the company has attracted $20M in venture capital, with another $10M to be subscribed at the final closing of the second part of the current investment "B round".
"360 VUZ" has partnered with Formula 1, The Oscars, MBC, Golden Globe Award, Emmys, Universal, Red Bull, Warner Bros, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Super Bowl, Thriller and many more.
In 2022, “360 VUZ” opened a new office in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA, expanding its portfolio to a city, best known as the home of the entertainment industry.
The mobile application "360 VUZ" is at the top of Apple Store’s category “video” and first when searching for keywords "360 videos":
The net income of the company shows a stable and remarkable growth. For 2019 it is $1'430'000, for 2020 it is $2'412'000 and for 2021 - $3'995'000. For the first 6 months of 2022 it is over $3'173'000 (81% more than the first 6 months of 2021) and it is expected to reach a value of over $7'000'000 by the end of 2022.
The interest in the company's investment "B round" (in which, through the Webit Investment Network, all current owners of WIN shares got the opportunity to invest their money) is extremely high. In addition to the leading investor Caruso Ventures, 7 more investors are participating, including Dubai Future District Fund, Pantera Capital and the giants Etisalat Ventures, which are the investment unit of one of the largest telecom groups in the world with over 100 million users. The total size of the round is $20 million.
The company plans to double its revenue in 2023. In the same year the management plans of the company are to reach breakeven point and to become profitable, which would be a major success and chart a trajectory of tremendous growth in market valuation of the company.
Webit Investment Network (WIN) negotiated the best possible terms for its shareholders, identical to those of the lead investor in the round and Etisalat Ventures. This applies both to the preference shares and to the value of the company, which is $70'000'000 as estimated by the lead investor, accepted by the other investors.
The valuation (pre-money) is made according to the formula of net income multiplied by a multiplier and for this transaction the multiplier is about 10. World standards at the moment indicate that for startups in a similar stage of development and in similar industries, a multiplier of 10 is applicable for companies that increase their revenue by about 30%-40% per year.
In the case of “360 VUZ”, the company is increasing its revenue by over 65% every year, and in 2022 the growth is expected to be even more significant! That's almost double the standard multiplier of 10 and this one (and not bigger) is applied to this deal, which adds extra appeal and value to it.
In April 2020, in an "A round", the company was valued at $35 million with realized revenue at the end of 2020 of $2.4 million. To date, WIN enters at a valuation of $70 million on expected revenue of $7 million dollars by the end of the year. Revenue growth is 3 times over for the period and the company is rated only 2 times above its current value. The multiplier drops from 14.6 x to 10 x future net sales, or 30% in real terms.
In its business plan, “360 VUZ” states that by 2026 the company expects annual revenues of over $160,000,000. The growth is not only in the revenue part. One of the important indicators for measuring the development and potential of a company in this industry is the total number of screen views of the mobile application. For "360 VUZ" in 2020 it was 173 million. In 2021 it was 541 million (313% growth). For 2022, this figure is expected to reach 1.835 billion (>330% growth), and by 2026, forecast data points to over 29 billion.
Considering the above and based on the results of the company's detailed research, the WIN Board of Directors made an unanimous decision to make an investment of $900'000 in "360 VUZ" and authorized Dr. Plamen Russev to sign the contract for investment and acquisition of property in the company on behalf of Webit Investment Network. On September 29, 2022, the documents were signed, making WIN a minority owner of "360 VUZ". Respectively, each current shareholder of Webit Investment Network receives a part of this ownership in the company in the amount of WIN shares owned.
With this and every subsequent deal, WIN is doing what it has promised and committed to its investors - to democratize the access to opportunities and wealth and to enable every BSE investor to invest in fast-growing international companies on exactly the same terms as the largest investment funds in the world are having.
Expect more news about WIN's upcoming new investments in the upcoming weeks.