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Trailerpop on Mission to Make Discovering Entertainment Fun and Social, Connecting People around Their Media InterestsSAN FRANCISCO --(Business Wire)-- Trailerpop, a new platform with a mission to solve entertainment discovery and connect people through entertainment, has revealed that the company raised $750,000 in an angel round of financing last year from prominent investors, including companies and individuals across tech, entertainment and advertising sectors. Trailerpop used the first round to build the proof of concept app that has demonstrated strong consumer interest, and now the company is focused on expanding the product to marry entertainment discovery and community features. "We are excited by the initial success of Trailerpop around the world and are humbled by the endorsement from our esteemed investors," Jon Vlassopulos, CEO and founder, Trailerpop, said. "We see that our fans are discovering more movies through trailers and trivia, so we want to offer them a fun way to aggregate their viewing histories and discover new friends with similar interests. Our app sits at the intersection of interactive entertainment, mobile, social and advertising. Our investor and advisor group represents deep expertise across all the areas that we blend." Funding for Trailerpop's angel round was led by a collection of top international investors, including powerhouse media and entertainment agency William Morris Endeavor; Great Oaks Ventures; Structure VC; WSGR; and Manatt Digital Media Ventures. Single investors include President of Condé Nast China and former SVP of Entertainment, Comcast (News - Alert), Liz Schimel; Global President, Liquid Thread, Starcom Mediavest Group and former CEO of Endemol Brands, Olivier Gers; former SVP at Motorola, Alain Mutricy (News - Alert); Telescope CEO Jason George, former Skype advisor and RDIO CEO, Drew Larner; CEO of leading Indian media company, Xerces, Xerces Mullan; COO of Pixable and former President of Zingy, Andy Volanakis; former CRO of Tagman and former EVP of Comscore, Wolfgang Allisat; Mobile Product lead at Facebook (News - Alert), Michael Sharon; CEO of Bsafe & former VP of Product at HTC, Nicklas Jonnson; former head of strategy at Microsoft Game Studios, Prashant Bhatia; COO of MirriAd and former EVP, Digital, Island Def Jam,Universal Music, Ted Mico; "Trailerpop has done a fantastic job building a fast growing, highly engaged, global entertainment community from scratch," said Liz Schimel, Presdent of Condé Nast China and former SVP of Entertainment, Comcast. "I am very excited about the expanded vision of marrying entertainment discovery with social connections. Our love of movies and TV are part of our collective DNA and should provide a perfect context for connecting like-minded people." Trailerpop's angel investment went toward building the first proof of concept version of the company's pop culture app, which focused on making entertainment discovery fun and social through trailer watching, movie trivia, rewards and integrated purchase. The app launched across iOS and Android, receiving multiple App Store features as well as positive reviews from users and press. The engagement that the application drives resulted in an 8x increase in trailer viewing versus the industry average, with top players consuming more than two hours of trailers per month. Multiplayer challenging and chat proved that people like to challenge friends and chat about their favorite movies. Trailerpop's next focus is to grow the company and build out the expanded version of the app for connected TV and gaming console platforms, as well as to expand internationally. Currently in development, the next version of Trailerpop will offer additional features that will help connect the world through entertainment. Allowing entertainment fans a fun way to catalog their movies and TV shows, Trailerpop will facilitate connections and conversations between like-minded fans, creating the first media-powered people discovery platform. "People tend to connect through shared interests, and what could be more universal than shared interests around TV and movies?" said Jon Vlassopulos. "Trailerpop will become an intuitive way to discover and rate entertainment, watch and play videos and connect with people around topics they love. Digital communication needs better context, and we feel that entertainment can be that missing bridge." Launched in March 2013, Trailerpop's first version has already grown to more than 400,000 users and has garnered positive reviews from critics and users alike. Available for iOS and Android devices, the app makes discovering entertainment fun and social by delivering curated channels of more than 20,000 high definition film trailers with added trivia, friendly competition and rewards. Trailerpop appeals to all types of movie fans from cinephiles to casual viewers with lists created by friends, Trailerpop editors, celebrities and other tastemakers. The current version of Trailerpop also seamlessly integrates with all major movie rental, streaming, purchasing and ticketing partners like Fandango, Netflix, Hulu (News - Alert), Google Play, iTunes and Amazon. About Trailerpop Trailerpop is connecting the world through entertainment. It is a global, mobile community of entertainment fans that makes premium content discovery fun and social. Trailerpop's first version has already grown to more than 400,000 users and has garnered positive reviews from critics and users alike. Available for iOS and Android devices, the app makes discovering entertainment fun and social by delivering curated channels of more than 20,000 high definition film trailers with added trivia, friendly competition and rewards. Trailerpop appeals to all types of movie fans from cinephiles to casual viewers with lists created by friends, Trailerpop editors, celebrities and other tastemakers. The current version of Trailerpop also seamlessly integrates with all major movie rental, streaming, purchasing and ticketing partners like Fandango, Netflix, Hulu, Google (News - Alert) Play, iTunes and Amazon. Follow the company on Twitter and Facebook. For more information about the company, please visit http://www.trailerpop.com
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