A Montreal-based startup says there is real economic value in the everyday videos people have on their phone.
On Tuesday, Gridbank raised $6 million in seed funding to scale its platform. The company’s app allows users to upload videos from their smartphones, which companies may pay to use in their advertising.
It’s a way for users who are not influencers to make some passive income, says the company’s founder and CEO, Laura Lalonde.
“My dad actually makes money off of his video of his brown Labrador, Jasper, running in the snow up at the cottage,” says Lalonde.
“So really, anything you have can actually have commercial value to our customer.”
Lalonde said she came up with this business idea when she worked in advertising.
“They’re looking for this type of very real, authentic, this texture of reality, type of stuff we’re able to offer in a very large database,” says Lalonde.
“Last week, I was talking to a customer who is starting a laundry delivery service business in his town, and so he came on Gridbank to look for videos that felt really authentic, of people literally folding their laundry.”
She says creators maintain ownership rights for their videos even after their content is sold. Users are paid once their video is downloaded, and the price is based on market demand per video.
“I wanted to make sure that we kept people’s dignity and their ownership of their own stuff,” says Lalonde.
“When somebody’s bought it, they can use it for as long as they want. If somebody says, ‘No, I’m done with letting you use it,’ it stops there.”
Oversubscribed seed funding
The app officially launched three years ago and was already profitable before closing its oversubscribed $6 million seed round on Tuesday.
The investment was led by StandUp Ventures, with co-leads Version One Ventures and GreenSky Ventures, and participation from AQC Capital and Anges Québec.
“We’re going to be investing a lot more in a lot of really cool, fun projects,” said Lalonde.
She sees significant market potential for the company, with a hopeful eye on a future Initial Public Offering.
“We’re all on our phones watching videos all the time. So I believe it’s one of the most important digital assets to exist right now,” says Lalonde.
Filtering AI videos
Right now, the company is filtering out AI videos on the platform, says Lalonde.
She says while AI generated video can be a fantastic tool, authentic imperfect videos bring people real joy.
