About

Our mission is to make great cinema truly accessible. We handpick films from festivals across the world and make them accessible anytime, anywhere, through a curated streaming platform and in theatres. Cinobo was created to fill in a gap in the content provider market and meet the cinephiles’ entertainment needs. It is the first Greek sVOD streaming service to launch in the Greek and Cypriot markets and is the only one specialising in film. Today, Cinobo gives access to the largest and most prestigious curated collection of world arthouse and independent cinema available in Greece, accessible on all screens, from mobile and smart TVs to theatres, and is the only content provider giving access to the wealth of festival awarded films, contemporary Greek cinema and cinema classics. Since Launch, Cinobo has managed to establish itself as the brand synonymous to quality cinema. It is highly reputable, has a strong-loyalty subscribers’ base and an engaged community of end-users. The company is in the stage of growth in a rapidly growing market and with our next funding round we want to plan and execute our international expansion.

Solution & Product

While we experience the explosion of streaming and radical structural shift in the AV sector, cinephiles cannot find the content they are seeking in the current market offer. The wealth of independent and arthouse cinema is not accessible anywhere, but in few single-screen cinemas and major festivals for limited time and is inaccessible to the population outwith urban centres. As global giants and telecom providers try to carve out space in the streaming world and compete for mass-market content (eg. series, sports, blockbusters), little attention is paid to the quality of films. Existing options are unable to satisfy the entertainment needs of film-lovers and the exhibition needs of film creators. Cinobo bridges the gap between quality and quantity in the content provider market and offers a 360 solution for cinema lovers and film creators, making cinema accessible from mobile devices to theatres. The service offers an extensive and constantly updated online catalogue that includes all the must-sees of a cinephile. From classics to new releases, from festival gems to Oscar winners, auteur tributes and thematic editorials, our curators handpick cinema that needs to be discovered and make it accessible for the first time, all in one place. The subscriber accesses the content in HD with Greek subtitles and surround sound, through the PC, smartphone, tablet, smart TV and even in cinemas, with a flexible monthly subscription at €7.99, following a 14 days free trial.

Innovation & Scalability

Cinobo is the first Greek sVOD service to launch in Greece and one of the few in Europe that targets the niche audience of cinephiles. It employs a streaming and distribution hybrid business model, which provides exclusive content for the sVOD service, making it more defensible, and allowing further market penetration by sublicensing films to cinemas, TV, events etc. This innovative approach results in added-value for subscribers (free cinema tickets), cost- effective marketing, optimal film exhibition and improved vertical exploitation of licensed rights. Cinobo is planning to achieve maximal local market penetration in Greece and Cyprus over the next 5 years, achieving an annual revenue of 5.5M. Its influence in the cinephile community in the territory means it also has potential to increase its revenue by expanding its activities (live events, premium VOD, transaction VOD). Importantly, Cinobo can scale up by expanding in other markets, as the team has the expertise and network to license content for other EU territories and amortisation of costs (acquisitions, platform, materials, staff) on a broader consumer base would be a major competitive advantage. Cinobo will utilise its current whitelabel tech to achieve quick growth in the first EU markets. In the meantime, it will develop its own platform, to have total effective infrastructure management, reduce the tech costs and gain economies of scale.

Traction & achievements

- Raised the necessary pre-seed and seed funding to initiate operations - Incorporated in August 2019 - Launched the platform in March 2020 - Reached 1-year milestone of 10k paying subscribers in first 9 months - Annual turnover 2022: ~2 million - 100k downloads of Cinobo app across 4 app stores - Integrated technology: fully localised, PC web access (MacOS/Windows), mobile apps (Android/iOS, Smart TV apps (Android/LG/Samsung), Features: Watch offline, Watchlist, Parental control, Search by festival/directors etc. - Grew from 2 to 19 people team - 3,3m streaming hours since launch - 100k Newsletter Audience - 65,5k facebook followers (343k engagements last month) - 41,1k instagram followers (119k engagements last month) - From 300 title initial film library to nearly 1000 - Films from over 640 different directors, from 84 different countries and in 96 different languages. - Established collaborations with over 40 sales agents form 30 different countries, with 10 of 13 Greek film distributors, 60 independent Greek producers, over 10 cinemas and links with Greek film festivals and Hellenic Film Academy - Invited to Reworks Festival 2020 and Animasyros International Animation Festival 2021 as keynote speakers - CEO selected as one of the faces of We are Europe in 2020

Team & Why Us

The project started from 2 people and today we are a passionate and committed team of 19 from diverse backgrounds, across various disciplines (journalism, e-commerce, marketing, science, customer service etc). Some members bring over 20 years of expertise in the film industry, while others bring over 15 years of experience in marketing and e-commerce. The strong industry expertise and market knowledge has allowed a fast penetration in the market, strengthening the company’s position in the industry through collaborations with cinemas, media and organizations. The founder and CEO, Dafni, is a 2829year old molecular parasitologist that, after 9 years of living in Glasgow and 4 years working in world-leading research institutes, moved to Athens to follow her passion in film. Dafni is born and bred in a family of cinephiles with decades of professional expertise in home entertainment who are main shareholders (61%) and mentoring her on this project. Key to the successful launch of the project is that the team share the company vision and mission and they take great pride in their work. We hope to play a role in establishing new business models and collaborative solutions in the fast-changing audio-visual sector and we envision that Cinobo can play part in shaping an innovative future for the film industry.

Funding Needs

Given the current dynamics in the Greek and global film streaming market, a potential investment on Cinobo will: 1. Cement its local leadership position. Multiply marketing efforts for maximal market penetration, improve tech and data capacities, enhance exclusive rights acquisition and allow strategic output deals and stronger synergies, build new revenue streams. 2. Fund international expansion. Quick dissemination in other markets requires significant resources in licensing and marketing for each territory and eliminating the risk of entry of competitors in a very fast growing market are the. 3. Develop own streaming platform technology. Have total effective infrastructure management, reduce the tech costs and gain economies of scale.