GS Group invests €200 000 in a Finnish startup

GS Group has invested €200 000 in a promising Finnish social TV startup Share the Moment by Tellyo company combining technologies in TV and social media.

Investment and industry holding GS Group actively develops venture investment in TV startups and related industries. GS Group`s investment for Tellyo is aimed at accelerating development and growth throughout the TV industry.

Tellyo’s Share the Moment service, demanded by viewers and TV operators, allows just-seen TV moments to be shared with a single click on Facebook and Twitter through second screen devices (smartphones or tablets). In terms of benefit for broadcasters, shared TV moments amplify audience engagement and provide an additional revenue stream.

Kimmo Koivisto, CEO and Co-Founder of Tellyo, comments: “It has been quite a deal for our company to understand the interest and needs of TV viewers and translate that into a service which can be offered across TV industry. With this investment and GS Group`s support and expertise we can now accelerate our mission in creating the easiest way to share TV moments as well as drive and monetize social engagement around TV”.

Support of Tellyo’s service is the first investment provided to a foreign project by GS Group’s corporate venture fund GS Venture. Usually, the fund works hard to find projects in Russia, scrutinizing proposals and assessing their potential. GS Venture experts note that the potential of the idea, as well as a high level of Share the Moment development in terms of technology, set a high standard for Russian start-up teams.

Sergey Filimonov, Head of GS Venture fund within GS Group, commented: “We have been impressed by the early impact the Tellyo team have made with their Share the Moment service and we are excited to support this service and enable new monetization opportunities between TV and Social media industry. It is a service which we believe could become successful and we look forward to seeing the service to be adopted by many more operators wishing to boost their advertising revenues. We are not only investing to accelerate the company’s growth, but we also expect our globally expanding network of operators to further adopt Tellyo’s services.”

A high potential of the service is also backed up by the fact that it is already being widely employed by many broadcasters. Share the Moment is used by nine top TV shows such as Big Brother and MasterChef in three countries. The shared moments from Finnish MTV’s show “Comedy Combat” recently reached almost two million Facebook users and generated over 100,000 likes, showing a growing demand for such a service.