Oovvuu goes into liquidation: Aussie media start-up collapses owing $1.3million

A multimillion-dollar startup that provided services to well-known media organizations has gone bankrupt, owing creditors $1.3 million.

Melbourne-based Oovvuu went bust in May, despite investors pouring $8.5 million into the company since its launch in 2014.

The company provided services to more than 250 media outlets worldwide, with clients including Reuters, BBC, ABC, Channel 7 and Newscorp.

Oovvuu was seen as a leading startup in the sector, having developed an AI system that enabled journalists to match the most relevant videos to news stories.

The company owes $1.3 million to creditors including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Euronews, Bloomberg, AFP and Aljazeera.

There is $489,000 in unpaid employee benefits and 32 unprotected creditors.

Bankruptcy firm Auxilium Partners has been appointed as liquidator of Oovvuu Pty Ltd.

Oovuu’s LinkedIn page states: ‘We offer publishers a complete solution, including the video, the platform, the player and the monetization.’

In Australia, Oovvuu was popular on Channel Seven, News Corp and ABC.

“Our mission is to accompany every story with a relevant video, deliver reliable news to billions of people, and return billions in advertising revenue to the news industry.”

The company was founded by former Fairfax Media employees Ricky Sutton and Greg Moore and former Southern Star and WIN Corp finance director Ross McCreath.

Mr Sutton said news.com.au He was not CEO when the company went bankrupt and has not been involved with Oovvuu for a year.

In 2020, Mr. Sutton said InnovationAus.com The company started as Contentco and struggled to obtain financing.

“We chose that name because we didn’t want to be too cool and sexy.”

“It was a completely wrong decision.”

The company provided services to more than 250 media outlets worldwide, counting Reuters, BBC, ABC, Channel 7 and Newscorp among its clients

Melbourne-based company Oovvuu has worked with global media outlets including the BBC (pictured)

Mr. Sutton said he had consulted a friend in Silicon Valley who had sold a startup company for $600 million.

“He told me to pick a name with two ‘O’s’ in it that Silicon Valley would love, because all the successful companies in Silicon Valley — Google, Yahoo, Facebook — have names with two ‘O’s’ in them.”

“So we searched on GoDaddy for domain names with two ‘O’s,’ found Oovvuu, bought it for $90, and within three months we had financing in place.”