Internet Ventures FIZ, an MCI Management Group (MCI) fund with shares held by the National Capital Fund (Krajowy Fundusz Kapitałowy, KFK), has signed an investment agreement with NOPATTERN, owner of 4screens, a development platform for interactive apps which enable real-time interaction with users/viewers on multiple devices. The investment, worth several million Polish zlotys, enables MCI to become the company’s minority shareholder.
4screens is a Polish start-up enabling media, marketing and e-commerce companies to easily develop interactive apps available on multiple screens (such as second screen or social hub). NOPATTERN will use the funds to take the service global by offering it on the international B2B market.
“4screens feeds into the latest global mobile technology trends. On the one hand, the platform enables its users to develop apps on their own, while on the other hand it is flexible and offers ready-made modules, which can be freely modified depending on the current needs and used to build interactive apps,” says Tomasz Danis, who manages Internet Ventures. “4screens is offered as Software as a Service, and therefore the business model can be easily scaled,” he adds.
With 4screens, users can develop interactive apps and make them available on multiple screens (mobile, desktop, TV and outdoor media). Thanks to its module-based structure, 4screens offers dedicated solutions for TV broadcasters (second screen), radio broadcasters (as a tool to communicate with the audience), event organisers (multi-screen solutions), retailers (social hub) and brand promoters (content marketing).
“Ca. 90% of all interactions with the media take place on multiple screens,” says Piotr Szostak, Managing Director at 4screens. “Multi-screening is gaining in popularity. Most viewers watch TV while at the same time using a different device, such as a mobile phone, tablet or laptop computer and thus broadcasters must now try to attract their attention also through additional platforms. If they themselves develop interactive applications, they will increase their audience’s engagement, which will translate into an income boost,” he adds.
4screens solutions are used by Polish TV broadcasters, such as TVN (“Kuba Wojewódzki”, “You Can Dance”), TVP (“The Voice of Poland”, “Dzięki Bogu Już Weekend” and “SuperSTAR-cie”) or 4fun Media (Fun App TV available from Google Play and iTunes), as well as brand representatives, such as Agros Nova, which has launched a social hub dedicated to Fortuna juices on 4screens.
The investment in 4screens is carried out together with the National Capital Fund,
which is a co-shareholder of several venture capital investment funds and in this capacity supports investment into young Polish companies encountering significant hurdles in terms of their financing possibilities due to the fact that they are at an early operational development stage and their economic results are uncertain.
Internet Ventures FIZ is a fund investing into technology and internet venture capital (early stage, growth) companies operating in the field of digital media, Internet, software, mobile and wireless technologies (B2C), cloud computing, big data, online games and entertainments services, e-advertising and m-advertising.
NOPATTERN is a dynamically growing software company specialising in Responsive Web Design, mobile apps and Second Screen and Multi-Screen solutions. It implements innovative projects for leading media companies.