KOMI Group – Manchester-headquartered digital media business – has secured an additional £5.5 million in growth capital investment from BGF, the most active equity investor in the UK and Ireland. This follows a multi-million investment from BGF, which was announced in November 2022. The additional funding will allow KOMIGroup to continue its growth trajectory with an enhanced focus on international expansion and strategic M&A.
KOMI Group has experienced strong growth with BGF’s backing. With a mission to create the most engaged digital audiences in the world, KOMI Group has also expanded its followers from 40 million to 113 million, across 46 brands, generating more 2.5 billion monthly views which amounts to more than 1.5 billion minutes watched each month. The business has also successfully launched its new talent offering, KOMI Talent, which has grown by 130% year-on-year.
Founded in 2015, KOMI Group is led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Trotman, Group Managing Director Sam Lenehan and CFO Tom Moran.
Sam Lenehan, Group MD at KOMI Group said: “We’ve experienced a period of good growth with BGF’s support and created strong foundations to accelerate our global expansion. With renewed backing, we’ll look at US acquisitions where we can partner with agile, independent companies to drive innovation and grow more rapidly as a combined entity. We were attracted to BGF because of its flexible model and ability to provide follow-on funding so we can capitalise on growth opportunities. We’re energised by this investment and have a number of live opportunities ready to put the capital to work.”
Andrew Trotman, Founder and CEO at KOMI Group said: “We pride ourselves on building high growth, digital first audiences, who are entertained by the best stories, told by the best creators. It took us six years to hit our first month with one billion views. It’s taken us only one year to double that. We’re just getting started! This new investment will allow us to accelerate that growth; entertaining hundreds of millions of our viewers, all around the world, every day.”
The business works across all major social media platforms, creating and curating the engaging social first content to entertain its global audience base. It also works with content creators, brands, media agencies and production houses to drive social media strategies that achieve against a business’ objectives. In addition, it licences expertly curated content utilised by the world’s biggest media outlets and supporting influencers’ content generation.
Rhys Davenport led this deal and the original investment for BGF, along with investor Courtney Walker.
BGF investor, Rhys Davenport added: “KOMI has significant potential for global growth and a track record of scaling its platform and reach organically. With a disruptive offering and innovative approach to the market, the team will look towards M&A to continue with this trajectory.”
KOMI was advised by: Deloitte (Chris Graves and Rob Leonard) and Eversheds (Lizzy Tindall, James Finney, Jon Edwards and Lisa Letter)
BGF was advised by Squire Patton Boggs (Matt Canipa, Andy Kirkham, Elysia Watts, Matt Flanagan-Roberts and Hayley Clarke)
Mark Wasley provided FDD.
