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Read the 18-page pitch deck that Latino-focused streaming startup Canela Media used to raise $32 million
Canela Media
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- Latino-focused streaming startup Canela Media raised $32 million in a Series A round.
- The company shared with Insider the 18-page deck that it used during the fundraise.
- It lays out the company’s Latin American growth plans, including separate TV, music, and kids apps.
Canela Media is a streaming media company built for Latinos.
Canela Media
The company, founded in 2019, focuses on Latino audiences with content in Spanish, English, and, soon, Portuguese.
It started in the US and is expanding throughout Latin America, including Brazil.
Canela acquires content libraries that weren’t easily available to Latino audiences before, such as bringing soccer games from El Salvador and baseball games from the Dominican Republic to the US.
Its app offers on-demand licensed and original shows, as well as live news and sports.
The startup was founded by ad-tech exec with mobile experience.
Canela Media
Isabel Rafferty, who cofounded Canela, has a multicultural marketing background.
She was a VP at Adsmovil, a major mobile ad-network for US Latinos. And she previously founded Mobvious Media to reach US Latino audiences through mobile advertising. The company sold in 2017 to Spanish media conglomerate Prisa Group.
It previously raised $3 million in seed funding and was seeking $22 million for its series A.
The investors in Canela’s seed round that closed in October 2020 included existing investors BBG Ventures, Mighty Capital, Reinventure Capital, Portfolia’s Rising America Fund, Powerhouse Capital, and more — all of which also invested in the Series A, Rafferty said.
The Series A, which closed at $32 million, was coled by Acrew Capital and Angeles Investors and included Link Ventures, Tegna Ventures, and Samsung Next, the electronics maker’s venture arm.
Canela’s 2022 roadmap includes a standalone kids app and original programming.
Canela Media
The company launched in 2020 its first app, a free streaming video service called Canela.TV, which it later expanded in Mexico and other Latin American markets.
In 2021, it started rolling out linear streaming channels, including channels for news and live sports.
Next up, it says it plans to launch a standalone app for kids and ramp up its original content with a focus on young creators and influencers.
Its video app, Canela.TV, boasts 8 million users.
Canela Media
The company says its flagship streaming app, Canela.TV, has more than 8 million users, who watch for an average of 74 minutes per day.
That doesn’t include its viewers on FAST platforms like Samsung TV+, where Rafferty said its most popular networks include its main channel with news, its channel with classic films from Mexico, and its live sports.
Canela boasts content from a range of Latin American countries, including Colombia, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and more.
Distribution is key for streaming services, and Canela says its video app is available on many devices.
Canela Media
Canela’s TV app is available on smartphones, on desktop, through connected devices like Roku players and Apple TVs, and on smart TVs from Samsung and Vizio. Its content is also available on some FAST platforms including Samsung TV+.
Canela also says its app audience is unique compared with rival platforms.
Canela Media
Based on a March 2021 viewer survey conducted by the company, Canela determined that 60% of its audience was “unduplicated” on competitor platforms, meaning it audience can’t be reached through its rivals. Those competitors included Spanish-language streaming services Pantaya and Vix, as well as general audience platforms like Hulu and Pluto TV.
The company says its video app reaches a young, diverse audience.
Canela Media
Canela breaks down the audience demographics for its video app.
It says the majority of its audience are between the ages of 18 and 49, and have a household income over $75,000. It has a mix of US Hispanics from various countries of origin. And roughly half its viewers are bilingual, according to the company.
It cites internal app metrics, company survey data, and analytics from Roku and ComScore.
Canela will soon have three streaming apps: for TV, music, and kids.
Canela Media
Canela.TV’s is its core app, which is available in the US and Mexico, and is expanding across Latin America.
The company also launched in October 2021 a standalone music app, called Canela Music.
It plans to launch in 2022, with the help of its Series A funding, a kids app called Canela Kids.
Canela Music has music videos and mix tapes, as well as original content.
Canela Media
Canela Music’s original programming includes a talk show with artist Nicky Jam, a series called “Rising Notes” that showcases emerging artists, and show called “Con Sazón” that combines cooking and music.
Beyond the app, Canela also programs seven linear music channels that are available on its TV app and partner platforms.
Canela’s kids app is geared toward Latino parents who want their kids to grow up speaking Spanish.
Canela Media
The app will include educational and entertainment programming — entirely in Spanish — to help parents immerse their children in the Spanish language.
Canela says the app will have a lighter ad load than its other streaming apps, since it’s made for kids.
The deck also lays out Canela’s goals and results.
Canela Media
Canela says its has 180 website partners that expand its ad reach.
Canela Media
The company says its owns an operates 180 websites that give it more scale, in addition to its apps and streaming channels.
The deck cites ComScore data from January 2022 that ranks it among the top Hispanic ad-focused groups by total unique visitors.
Canela forecasts that its TV app will remain its largest by users, and followed by its music and kids apps.
Canela Media
The company projects user growth through the end of 2022.
Canela projects its revenue will increase 90% year over year in 2022.
Canela Media
Similar to its user growth trajectory, Canela expects that its TV app and channels will remain its biggest revenue driver, followed by its music app, and then the upcoming kids app.
*The deck presented to potential investors, which was viewed by Insider, included actual revenue figures, rather than percent change.
Canela plans to use most of its Series A funding to invest in technology and content.
Canela Media
The New Y0rk-based company plans to open an innovation tech center in San Francisco, where it will explore technology including NFTs and virtual reality to stay competitive, Rafferty said.
“This innovation center is going to make sure we’re always at the forefront of media,” she said.
Canela also plans to invest in content that will help it expand internationally, such as Portuguese-language content for Brazil, as well as kids programming and originals.
*The deck presented to potential investors, which was viewed by Insider, broke down Canela’s use of funds in dollars.
The startup sums up the investment case by reiterating its recent milestones.
Canela Media
Those milestones include its three streaming platforms that are built on the same tech infrastructure, its ad-tech expertise, and its user growth.
The pitch deck concludes with a thank-you page.
Canela Media