Sri Lanka-based digital content platform Roar has taken the top spot in its sector in Bangladesh, having become the No. 1 New Media platform in that country.
In India, despite it being a virtually untapped market for the platform, Roar has already shown encouraging growth. And considering India’s current overall internet penetration is just 33 per cent, and that it is the second largest online market in the world, with digital ad spends of $2 billion for 2018, there is immense potential for growth for Roar, with it set to become one of the top digital content players in India within 2018.
Roar has additionally become a dominant player in Sri Lanka, addressing topics from tech to travel to social issues in Sinhalese, Tamil and English.
Helping its various initiatives along is the recent completion of Roar’s Pre Series A round of venture capital funding, which was led by the Digital Innovation Fund, powered by Dialog Axiata, and managed by BOV Capital.
“The Digital Innovation Fund is pleased to support fast growing digital content provider Roar in its South Asian expansion. Following Dialog Axiata’s initial investment in the Fund, we are looking to finance and mentor high growth potential digital startups with a particular focus on new technologies like Fin Tech, Health Tech, e-commerce, Edutainment, IoT and Media/Ad Tech. In addition, we also continue to welcome interest from potential investors for this very important Fund, which will empower the Sri Lankan startup ecosystem to continue to grow and thrive”, commented BOV Capital Co-Founder Prajeeth Balasubramaniam.
With plans to become the premier digital content organisation in South Asia, Roar has utilized good infotainment-led content in regional languages to dominate across markets. At the same time, Roar expects the majority of its growth to come from localized language content, with a particular focus on video. Besides the groups already served, Roar has plans to target many more language speakers in India who typically do not have access to good quality content.
Today, by publishing digital content across eight different websites, Roar receives over 35 million monthly video views, with a 20% month-on-month growth rate, along with more than six million website visitors, which increases 15% month-on-month.
Commenting on Roar’s recent string of successes, its CEO Mustafa Kassim said, “We have grown immensely across the South Asian continent over the last 24 months, and now, with backing from Dialog Axiata and BOV Capital, we can accelerate this growth even further. We can leverage these networks across South Asia to help us reach many more users and drive sales to the next level.”