Miroma Ventures founder Marc Boyan with SBTV’s Jamal Edwards
Jamal Edwards’s popular YouTube video channel SB.TV is to bring on board its first private equity backer, in a deal valuing the business at £8m.
Edwards, who started SB.TV seven years ago at the age of just 16, has struck a deal with technology and music investment specialists Miroma Ventures.
Edwards has built SB.TV from its roots in urban music to more mainstream appeal – its most popular video is an exclusive of Ed Sheeran singing You Need Me, I Don’t Need You which notched up 7m views, and the angel investment aims to drive the business into new areas.
London-based Miroma, which has investments including Pinterest and online fashion magazine Who What Wear, has taken a minority stake in the business for an undisclosed sum.
Marc Boyan, the founder of Miroma Ventures, will take a seat on the board and said that the company has committed to a further £1m investment round “at the appropriate time in SB.TV’s near future”.
‘Edwards has built SB.TV from its roots in urban music to more mainstream appeal’
Anyway, so Marc Boyan (remember that name), the founder of Miroma now owns a stake in SB.TV.
Miroma at the moment owns a minority stake in Jamal’s company but that will soon change. I am willing to bet that within 10 years SB.TV will be sold to Mr Boyan.
It will be Choice FM (now Capital XTRA) saga all over again.
Let the take over begin!
Congratulations Jamal.
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He needs to hang on to majority shares in his business.
But if his influence is mainly mainstream material and artists and ideas, then I can see the take over happening when they throw huge chunks of money to him.
You know what – I’m not mad at this move.
SBTV had long ago changed it’s output from unsigned grime artists shot on handheld camera in multi level car parks to slick Ed Sheeran videos.
Jamal did need investment to propel SBTV to it’s next level. Never heard of Miroma or their track record so let’s hope they have the expertise to help him do that.
As long as Jamal maintains enough shares for voting control he can still call the shots (remember, Mark Zuckerberg ‘only’ owns about 25% of Facebook but he has control).
At the end of the day, he should turn it into a £200M business – and then sell it. If he can do that within 10 years and walk away with £50m, he will still be only 30 years old and in a position to invest in the next Jamal Edwards. Or Choice FM.
‘ he will still be only 30 years old and in a position to invest in the next Jamal Edwards. Or Choice FM’
Why would he want to do that instead of building on what he already has and using it as a foundation? You don’t see multi billionaire Microsoft owner selling his brand to start another brand and yet he is very able financially to sell and start.
Microsoft made Bill Gates a billionaire at 31 years old. I can’t see SBTV doing the same for Jamal. It may make him rich while he still owns it – where he can make small investments in start-up companies – but not the kind of wealth where he can buy a radio station for example. I could be totally wrong of course but I guess he will only make significant money when he sells
I have to agree with Pheva on this one. The platform used to build SB TV in the first place was You Tube (owned and controlled by another entity entirely and I’m sure they reaped some great rewards from the hits received).
In terms of a long term business strategy this makes commercially viable sense – as with all businesses that need to grow they need investment in order to do so. As long as he can maintain control like Zuckerberg then this is move makes perfect sense. Unless there are investment facilities from the black community of this scale willing to put money into SB TV this is the only way for him to grow.
Alas I doubt he will be wealthy from SB TV but he will be extremely rich (unfortunately something that seems to go hand in hand with “urban” music). A shame but it’s business.
I thought virgin too had shares in it.
Hahaha, I watch too much dragon’s den. But hey, look where Reggae Reggae source is now. From nowhere to somewhere in a flash, thanks to the mighty well connected dragon who invested and bought shares in his product.
Does he have black staff now? I remember last time they first posted on him, he had only white staff and people were all up in arms. If that’s how he still thinks, then he might sell huge shares of his business the same way he started out. Atleast choice Fm employed their own until they were all kicked out years down the line after the sell.