6th February 2023 - Award-winning broadcaster UKTV has today announced it has invested in the UK's leading biography-writing service, StoryTerrace, using its multi-million pound investment fund, UKTV Ventures.
StoryTerrace carefully matches ordinary people with a professional ghost-writer to turn their life story into a beautiful book. The company has documented thousands of life stories with a network of over 600 professional ghost-writers globally, many of which have been published by some of the best-known media brands in the world. Inspired by founder Rutger Bruining's wish to have captured his grandfather's life story, StoryTerrace's vision is to create a world in which every life story is captured in a meaningful way for generations to come.
UKTV Ventures' £1 million "airtime-for-equity" investment sees StoryTerrace launch its first TV advertising campaign from February 4th on the broadcaster's seven linear channels - Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Drama, Yesterday, Eden. StoryTerrace will benefit from access to an audience of over 26 million viewers a month and in return, UKTV will gain an equity stake in the business.
Rutger Bruining, Founder and CEO of StoryTerrace, said:
We are really pleased to be partnering with UKTV Ventures through an airtime-for-equity deal at such an exciting time for StoryTerrace. With celebrity memoirs being ubiquitous in the headlines, it is important to note that writing a biography is not just reserved for public figures. We have seen a large uptick in people wanting to pen down their life stories post-pandemic, but awareness of our service is still at a negligible level. The huge reach that the UKTV network provides is perfect for building awareness and our customer base, helping us carry out our mission of extracting the extraordinary stories from ordinary people across the UK.
Brendan Kilcawley, Head of Commercial UKTV Ventures, said:
We believe StoryTerrace's mission to preserve memories will strike a chord with UKTV audiences and people globally. The power of TV advertising to boost brand awareness is huge and we are excited to be partnering with Rutger and his team to support growing the business.
UKTV Ventures is committed to helping companies new to TV advertising build their brand and scale up by benefiting from the wide reach, trust and recognition only achieved through TV advertising. Similar to venture capital, UKTV Ventures is a funding model which invests airtime, instead of cash, in burgeoning high-growth companies looking to accelerate their growth. UKTV Ventures' deal with StoryTerrace follows their recent investments in plastic free shampoo bar company KinKind, and social media platform, WeAre8.
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For further information please contact:
Rebecca Ferris, Corporate Communications Manager, UKTV
About UKTV Ventures
UKTV Ventures is UKTV's multi-million pound investment fund which offers high-growth start-ups an opportunity to enter the TV advertising market in exchange for a minority stake in their company. This is described as airtime-for-equity.
UKTV Ventures Website:
About UKTV
UKTV has been at the forefront of branded television for over 25 years, entertaining the nation with programmes they love. Its leading brands - Dave, Gold, W, Drama, Alibi, Eden and Yesterday - span comedy, entertainment, natural history, factual and drama, and are delivered to audiences through UKTV Play, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat and Amazon Fire. The broadcaster is a significant investor in British creativity and is committed to working with new and established writers, directors and programme-makers.
UKTV is part of BBC Studios, the UK's most-awarded production company, a world-class distributor with international branded services, and a commercial subsidiary of the world's leading public service broadcaster, the BBC.
UKTV Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKTV
UKTV Corporate Website: https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/
About StoryTerrace
StoryTerrace's vision is to create a world in which every life story is captured and passed on in a meaningful way. Its award-winning memoir writing service takes care of the entire process - matching clients with one of over 600 professional writers, interviewing, photo gathering, editing, designing, and printing their very own books. Books are on average 100 pages long, meaning that everyone can have their life story - or those of their loved ones - documented in a professionally curated biography.
Powered by its proprietary technology platform, StoryTerrace continues to scale globally and has sold thousands of packages, internationally, since its founding in 2014. The company was a winner on BBC Dragons' Den in 2020 and has gained traction in the likes of Sky News, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, Forbes, and CBS News.
StoryTerrace Twitter: https://twitter.com/StoryTerrace
StoryTerrace Corporate Website: https://storyterrace.com/
For StoryTerrace press enquiries please contact:
Jess Moore, 42 Bruton jess@42bruton.com