Zoom Culture Gets First-Round Funding

With a focus on user-generated digital video content and a goal of widespread Web syndication, Zoom Culture has closed on a first round of venture capital financing of $5.4 million.

Intersouth Partners led the investment as part of a group that also includes Cordova Ventures, Dean & Company and the Tri-State Investment Group (TIG).

Zoom Culture's Web site will launch in August with more than 7,000 video clips filling a dozen channels of programming. The site's user-created content currently ranges in focus from urban life to extreme sports, music, religion, and more. The company is working to build a network of video correspondents, starting with college students from around the globe.

Zoom Culture's business model involves the production,syndication and marketing of video programming to other Web sites and video outlets. The company expects to derive over 70 percent of its revenue from the syndication of content and the sharing of revenue from targeted rich-media advertising sold on Web sites featuring Zoom Culture programming.

"We have been tracking the company since October of 1999 and have beenimpressed with how (founder) Nathan Wieler and his team have taken a great idea and developed it into a real media company with global coverage," said Mitch Mumma, general partner of Durham, North Carolina-based Intersouth Partners. "The two aspects of this deal that stand out and set Zoom Culture apart from the competition are the company's extremely low cost of content acquisition and its channel-focused content distribution strategy."