Preston-based Viddyoze is worth upwards of £30m, counts the likes of Sony, Pepsico and Tesla as clients and made £550,000 in just four days when it launched. Here we learn more about them with our case study.

The software as a service (SaaS) business makes 3D animation software that allows absolutely anybody to create their own video animations in just a few simple steps, without any prior technical knowledge.

With users from huge global brands to one-man bands creating from home, eighty-five per cent of its market is in the US and the business is constantly innovating to add new products.

Entirely self-funded, David Chamberlain, one of three co-founders, says they knew they had come up with something special even in the early days.
“Viddyoze started out as a side project,” he says. “What we didn’t expect was to go from nothing to making half a million pounds in sales in four days – that’s when we realised we were onto something quite big.”

A former accountant, David had already set up a software business with friend Jamie Garside, building mobile loyalty schemes they sold to agencies. Slough-based Joey Xoto, a videographer, was running training courses on video-making but wanted to branch out to teach people how to create animation. Knowing David and Jamie from the industry circles they all moved in, he approached them to ask if they could build a platform that would enable people to make their own animations without the process being too complicated. That was in December 2014, the build began the following February and the product was launched in September 2015.

The rapid success in just a few days made it clear their focus should be on the product they had created, and Viddyoze was born.
“The problem for our users is that they’re not using video or not using it to the best of its ability and adding animation to a video improves conversion rates,” says David. “We show people what they can do with our product, but we’re also happy to show them other products, like Adobe After Effects, too so that they can compare. The key to our product is how easy it is to use.”

Getting these sort of customers on board at such a swift rate was achieved initially by staging a launch event inspired by how Apple launches its new iPhone models, working with a network of affiliates and revealing content prior to the day to create a buzz.

Sales opened at a set time, bringing in £100,000 in just four hours and then the £550,000 after four days. It’s a strategy they have used a further three times when launching new features of the system. One product, which achieved £950,000 in sales in four days, allows animation to be super-imposed onto live footage. “For example, you could show someone holding a coffee cup and add your logo to the cup and it looks real,” David says. Another product, Blox, launched last year with £600,000 sales in four days, and is a web-based video editor that allows the user to drag and drop elements into recorded footage.

“Our aim, essentially, is to market multiple products and to produce our own suite,” says David. “We see ourselves as a creative company for people who aren’t tech-minded.”

Customers tend to be anyone from hobbyists and one-man agencies working from home all the way up to the likes of Caffe Nero and Tesla, both of which used Viddyoze for their staff online learning courses, and others like Sony, Pepsico and KPMG. “It really is a wide-ranging customer base, from people who are doing this as a hobby to multi-billion dollar organisations,” he says. “I think that’s because we offer, to someone who’s not trained in animation or video creation, a solution that allows them to make animations without spending hundreds and thousands of dollars and in a much more fast-paced way.

“Rather than a big company waiting for an animator to create their animations, they can use our app and it takes a couple of minutes. It’s a time saver and money saver, two things everyone wants.”

Customers pay between $67 and $97 for access to 170 animations, which can be used as many times as they like. For an upgrade of $37 per month, subscribers gain access to the entire library of templates. The next evolution for the business will be a move to a B2B model with an enterprise solution based around personalised video, not a new product but rather a new branch to the business. This could allow businesses to take one piece of content and personalise it for each customer. “We ran a campaign for a taxi insurance company using live footage of a taxi on the road, where each customer received a renewal email with the video and the taxi had their number plate,” David says. “We feel personalisation is the future for video so that’s where we’re heading.”

Such willingness to evolve has enabled the business to keep growing, with its most recent revenue doubling on the previous year’s. They now employ 12 people in Preston and another 20 around the world, including in the US, Russia, Italy, South Africa, Serbia and Romania. Their Lancashire base has allowed them an affordable location, cutting down on travel time and costs, but has also enabled them to draw in the skills they need from surrounding areas. Support has come from UCLAN, with the directors accessing advice on funding and using remote working facilities on a number of occasions.

Their ability to work remotely also meant they were unaffected by the COVID-19 crisis, with the business seamlessly running from each employee’s home during the lockdown. In fact, the business reported 10,000 new customers in April 2020 – a six-fold increase on February.
“If I worked in Manchester, I’d have to travel 90 minutes to get there, but that time all adds up to productive hours at work because we’re based close to our homes,” David says. “People think big companies need to be based in big cities but that’s not the case. We’re not stuck with huge overheads from working in Manchester and that means we’re not putting ourselves under a huge amount of pressure.”

The business has remained as a mini board of three directors, with David, Jamie and Joey tending to work on their own areas but not being restricted by titles. It’s meant freedom with how they run their organisation, however, they are not averse to looking for outside influence in the future.

“Many companies in our sector have taken on funding at an early stage, and I think that can add a lot of pressure in itself,” David says. “Getting traction is the hard part and can take a lot of trial and error. To have someone looking over our shoulder while we made those mistakes would have been tough.

“For us, it’s about finding the right balance between risk and reward. Growing the business at a sustainable rate and making sure we all make time for our friends and families, as it’s so easy for entrepreneurs to fall into the trap of working themselves into the ground.”

The trio is currently in talks with a number of different private equity funds but David says the opportunity must be just right for the business they’ve built up. “Despite what’s going on in the world, people still have an appetite to invest, which is great for businesses looking for funding,” he says. “It’s a big decision and we want to go into it with the best foot forward. It’s also about having that balance of people around you to go on that journey and to celebrate your successes with.”

150-word synopsis

Viddyoze Case study looks at how Preston-based Viddyoze is worth upwards of £30m, counts the likes of Sony, Pepsico and Tesla as clients and made £550,000 in just four days when it launched.

The SaaS business makes 3D animation software that allows absolutely anybody to create their own video animations in just a few simple steps, without any prior technical knowledge.

With users from huge global brands to one-man bands creating from home, eighty-five per cent of its market is in the US and the business is constantly innovating to add new products.

Directors David Chamberlain, Jamie Garside and Joey Xoto founded Viddyoze as “a creative company for people who aren’t tech-minded” and now employ 12 people in Preston and another 20 around the world. Their willingness to evolve has seen them create a suite of products, available via a subscription model or a one-off payment basis.

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