Triller, a video-sharing social network service, has raised $200 million in financing as it eyes an initial public offering (IPO) of $3 billion before the end of this year. In a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it has raised debt and equity ahead of the IPO from investors such as Fubon Financial, one of the largest financial institutions in Asia.
An individual with knowledge of the filing said the latest raise was $200 million.
The target IPO valuation is $3 billion, a drop from the $5 billion valuation the company previously targeted for IPO as part of a SPAC merger that was ultimately pulled earlier this year due to market volatility. The $200 million in pre-IPO financing, from investors such as Falcon Capital and Clearvue Partners, comes as convertible debt ahead of the planned public listing.
Triller, which was first launched in 2015 by co-founders David Leiberman and Sammy Rubin, generates $120 million in revenue and is on track for a run rate of $250 million in 2023, an individual with knowledge of the filing told TheWrap. The company derives its revenue primarily from events, advertising and ecommerce.
The company also announced that it had completed the acquisition of Bare Knuckle Fight Championship, a fast-growing combat sport.
In total, Triller is comprised of nine divisions, all of which are profitable except for Verzuz, a live-video competition streaming series created by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz that sees two musicians pit their discographies against one another. It was first introduced during the early days of the pandemic and was acquired by TrillerNet in March 2021. This was followed by a series of additional acquisitions in the last 18 months, including combat sports streaming platform FITE TV, artificial-intelligence customer engagement platform Amplify.ai, business-to-business influencer event company Thuzio and influencer marketing platform Julius.
Triller has now raised $400 million to date, including this recent round of $200 million in additional funding. It will trade under the ticker symbol “ILLR” on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Triller was previously scheduled to go public through a reverse merger with SeaChange International, with the combined entity being valued at $5 billion. However, in June the company announced that it mutually agreed to terminate the planned merger.
Triller CEO Mahi de Silva said in July that app downloads and usage have increased as rival creator-driven social platform TikTok has come under increased scrutiny both in the United States and internationally. Triller counts celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber among its users.
