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UK-based 4040 Media, a global leading animated explainer video business, has raised £500,000 in equity and debt funding, with the equity investment coming from the newly formed angel syndicate Redstone Venture Managers, and the Angel CoFund.

4040 Media, which focuses on creating things that help businesses sell more or become more productive, was founded by CEO Matt Byrom in 2009. One of the early pioneers in showing how explainer videos could transform the effectiveness of inbound marketing, they have made over 1,500 videos in the last 5 years for clients across 40 countries. Now, through its brands Wyzowl and publi.sh, it is a market leading explainer video company.

4040 Media has already had great success in providing animated video production to some of the world’s leading businesses, including Seagate, Oracle and Deloitte, as well as many of the most exciting tech stars in the US and Europe, with 50% of its clients in the US. Animated explainer videos have become increasingly popular since early 2012, when Dropbox & Google started using them, and 4040 Media were early to capitalise on this trend.

The funding will be deployed to drive the next phase of growth, a combination of investment in its own marketing and sales resource, plus development of new products and services.  These include its new platform publi.sh, which enables marketers to discover the best expert marketing content on the web, and content providers, to increase the benefits they derive from their work.

4040 Media Founder and CEO, Matt Byrom, said: “It's an exciting time for us. We've grown the business as the popularity of explainer videos has exploded. We're now at a point in our growth where we can solidify our position as one of the leaders in our market and expand out our product offering to service our existing customers and new customers further”.

Of Redstone Venture Manager’s inaugural investment, Richard Young said: “It has been a privilege to be able to invest in 4040 Media, which is an emerging star of the North West tech scene, and to work with Matt Byrom, who is a talented and dedicated entrepreneur.  Angel Co Fund have helped us deliver this transaction and we look forward to working on many more investments with them”.

Tim Mills, Investment Director at the Angel CoFund said: “Matt’s ambition and drive with 4040 Media has been instrumental in successfully scaling this world class export focussed business to this point, and we are very pleased to be able to support the team through this next phase of growth. We’re also very pleased to be working alongside Redstone Venture Managers for the first time - a group of highly experienced and skilled investors that are bringing a wealth of knowledge to support the startup space.”