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Backlight Launches After Buying 5 Media Software Companies

New cloud solutions provider, backed by $200M+ investment led by PSG, opens for business after snapping up ftrack, iconik, Celtx, Wildmoka, and Zype.

Backlight, with the stated mission to provide cloud-based solutions to media, entertainment, and video-forward customers, has launched with the acquisitions of five media software businesses: ftrack, iconik, Celtx, Wildmoka, and Zype. The acquisitions were backed by a $200M+ investment led by PSG, a growth equity firm partnering with middle-market software and technology-enabled services companies.

“I believe the explosion and democratization of content creation, combined with the incredible growth and fragmentation of consumption, have created massive complexity and new opportunities for creatives and content owners,” commented Backlight CEO and president Ben Kaplan. “The market is demanding innovative, flexible, cloud-based solutions to modernize media workflows. With five incredible business units, each led by visionary CEOs delivering compelling, differentiated solutions, Backlight is well positioned to be a trusted partner for customers with mission-critical creative processes and video pipelines.”

The new Backlight Business Units are as follows:

Ftrack: Creator of ftrack Studio, cineSync, and ftrack, designed for producers, supervisors, artists, and pipeline developers to collaborate remotely.

Iconic: A SaaS media management solution designed for remote file and video. It features AI for high searchability.

Celtx: Provider of an all-in-one solution for writing, planning, and managing media production. Its pre-production planning software includes scriptwriting, storyboarding, shot planning, and budgeting and is used by in-house production teams, agencies, film schools and universities, game studios, and media & entertainment companies.

Wildmoka: A platform for the creation of live and near-live content in sports, news, and entertainment. It helps broadcasters provide a mobile-first experience. Its cloud-native Digital Media Factory aims to empower broadcasters and rights owners to produce and deliver content from any source to any destination, in any format.

Zype: The technology provides the infrastructure for digital video with a cloud-based platform to manage and distribute enterprise-grade video across the web, mobile, TV, and social media.

“There is a large market opportunity to improve the way content producers, owners and distributors create value, starting with the media and entertainment industry but extending to any enterprise investing in rich media and video,” added PSG managing director Matt Stone. “Our investment in Backlight reflects our conviction in the market, the team, and a vision of a modern media production lifecycle, from ideation to monetization.”

Source: Backlight

Debbie Diamond Sarto's picture

Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.