Largest Series A round by a Latino in the Media Industry; funding will help company rapidly expand business, enter new markets
Canela Media, an industry-leading, minority-owned digital media technology company, announced the completion of an oversubscribed $32 million Series A funding round. The investment was co-led by Acrew Capital and Angeles Investors with participation from Link Ventures, TEGNA Ventures and Samsung NEXT. BMO Harris Bank provided an additional $10 million of capital. In addition, existing investors BBG Ventures, Mighty Capital, Reinventure Capital, Portfolia’s Rising America Fund, Alumni Ventures and Powerhouse Capital, continued its participation, bringing Canela Media’s total funding to date to $35 million.
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Canela Media is the single largest funded, Latino-owned company with the 4th largest amount of funding for a female in the media industry. Latinos create more business ventures per capita than any other U.S. racial or ethnic group, comprising 18% of the population. Yet, they still receive less than 2% of all venture funding.
The financing will be used to help Canela Media accelerate product development, produce new high-quality original programming for its flagship products Canela.TV and Canela Music, and to enable expansion further into Latin America. Later this year, Canela will roll out the Canela Kids app focused on children’s programming. The company will also be adding 95 new positions in various functions, including engineering, operations and programming.
Commenting on Canela Media’s success, Richard Wolpert, venture partner at Acrew Capital, stated, “We continue to see significant business opportunities and growth coming from the U.S. and Latam Hispanic consumer segment, particularly in streaming media where consumers are looking for viewing options tailored to not only their language, but also their content consumption desires. Canela Media’s approach of “For Latinos, by Latinos” has helped them remain authentic and attract brands seeking to truly connect with multicultural audiences.”
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Launched in 2020, Canela.TV, one of the first AVOD streaming services for U.S. Hispanics/Latinos, is now approaching 10 million downloads. Canela.TV also has a wide distribution of FAST channels through partners such as Samsung, XUMO and LG. Canela Music launched in 2021 with a variety of music genres and original content. Canela Media reaches over 50 million users across their OTT products and 180 Spanish content sites.
“Canela Media set the standard for U.S. Hispanic consumer brand marketing in streaming media,” said Isabel Rafferty, Founder and CEO of Canela Media. “From inception, we made it our mission to serve the underrepresented U.S. Hispanic consumer, while bridging the gap to multicultural audiences for marketers. We look forward to helping more brands capitalize on our unparalleled and in-depth knowledge and understanding of how to establish meaningful and culturally relevant connections with U.S. Hispanics.”
“We believe this team, combined with its truly unique platform and approach, will unlock the full potential of the U.S. consumer market,” said Rodrigo Garcia, advisor at Angeles Investors. “Our firm’s investment philosophy is all about finding the most exciting startups, funding the most disruptive and fastest growing business models and growing the impact of Hispanic and Latino entrepreneurs in the U.S. economy. With Canela Media, we have discovered the perfect match.”
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