Blackbird raises £1.05m to advance cloud editing platform

(Sharecast News) - Cloud video editing technology specialist Blackbird raised £1.05m on Thursday, to invest into its elevate.io content creation product. The AIM-traded firm said the funds were raised by placing 17,500,002 new shares at a price of 6p apiece.

It said the placing, which included both existing and new investors, would see the newly-issued shares represent 4.53% of the company's enlarged share capital.

Key members of Blackbird's board and management, including chief executive Ian McDonough, alongside associated family members, were set to subscribe for £70,000 of the placement.

The board said the net proceeds of around £1m would be directed towards enhancing Blackbird's elevate.io product.

Elevate.io, a browser-based content creation tool, features simplified editing tools, enhanced collaboration features and an adaptable plug-in architecture, which Blackbird said was designed to address prevalent challenges faced by content creators.

The move came as Blackbird identified significant growth opportunities within the 'creator economy', a market valued at $250bn as of April last year and projected to double by 2027.

Specifically, the tools and services segment, which directly relates to elevate.io, was estimated to reach $180bn by 2032, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 25.7%.

It said elevate.io's infrastructure, built natively in the public cloud through partnerships with Amazon Web Services and other cloud service providers, was designed for scalability and global accessibility.

That, the board said, translated to consistent high performance and availability for users worldwide.

The placing involved the issue of 17,500,002 shares at a price of 6p each, representing a 13% discount to the closing mid-market price of existing shares on 28 February.

Blackbird's board said it chose not to extend the placing to all existing shareholders due to its size and associated costs.

"As general access of elevate.io approaches we have had a number of engaged high net worth individuals show interest in investing directly in our story," said chief executive officer Ian McDonough.

"Together with some existing shareholders we have raised additional funding to assist in the early months of elevate.io's growth."

At 1342 GMT, shares in Blackbird were down 11.3% at 6.12p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.