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Blowtorch Entertainment has raised $50 million in first-round funding for its plans to create a digital media company that distributes its content through all the channels used by the coveted demographic of always-connected young adults. Operating out of Los Angeles and San Francisco, Blowtorch plans to combine professional-grade content with user participation. The company's content will be distributed in a myriad of ways including online, movie theaters, at events or on mobile devices. The $50 million in financing consisted of both equity and debt, CEO Kelly Rodriques said. "We got about $10 million in the form of monetized marketing advances from our partners; we got $30 million in debt and $10 million in equity." Part of the equity investment came from Ignition Partners of Bellevue, Wash., and other undisclosed participants. Rodriques said that over 12 months Blowtorch plans to raise "another $50 million in very similar composition to what we've got now." The initial financing will enable Blowtorch to build the infrastructure needed to implement its business plans. "We'll deploy most of that $50 million in the first 18-24 months of the company's existence in making and co-financing movies and undertaking a fairly targeted marketing plan with much of the capital as well," said Rodriques. "We're doing a combination of staffing and developing the operating team, which is going to require about 18 months of burn before we start to see meaningful revenue from ticket sales and advertising." Aside from ticket and DVD sales Blowtorch has six major brands that have signed up to be sponsors of the company's content online, in theaters and on video. Over three years, Blowtorch plans to release an 18 feature films, at a rate of six per year, as well as short-form content. Blowtorch plans to spend roughly $6 million to produce or purchase each of its feature films. "The majority of our stuff is going to be sub-$6 million young adult comedy, thriller and character-driven pieces," Rodriques said. For its film initiative Blowtorch will target 500 to 600 screens that are within one to three miles of one of the major college campuses of the U.S. Rodriques said Blowtorch is negotiating with the major theater chains. Its first release will be "You Are Here," a film the company purchased and will debut in theaters in the spring. On the video side, the company has a partnership with Vivendi Visual Entertainment to distribute Blowtorch films on DVD, pay-per-view, iTunes and other channels. The Internet also plays a big role in the company's business plan. "From the standpoint of the social networks, we're talking to the big ones now; our goal is to promote heavily on them," Rodrques said. "We're already syndicating out short-form video across digg, del.ci.ous, twitter and Facebook, and we plan on taking advantage of open-social." "We're really trying to involve people in the making of these movies before we actually make them," he added. "Taking elements of the movie--like cast and music--and distributing them across the social networks for people to vote on. We're going to use the social networks initially as a means to syndicate user-influence and involvement in movies that are in development."  Deal Video
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