"Netflix of Islam' seeks investment to expand reach to Asia
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 24 February 2018

As it targets a Southeast Asia launch, East London video-on-demand service Alchemiya Media has launched a £1 million investment round based on UK based equity crowdfunding platform CrowdCube.

The VOD service claims to be 'the Netflix of Islam' and says that it offers 'inspirational' content about the arts, heritage, music, food, travel, and culture of the Muslim world. Outlining the potential opportunity for the service, Alchemiya quoted Thompson Reuters research calculating that the overall spend on Muslim-friendly media and recreation reached $189 billion in 2016, and is expected to reach $281 billion by 2022.

"Our content celebrates the very best of what the Muslim world has contributed to global culture, and now we can share that with audiences across Asia. They love the quality of the content that we produce," explained Alchemiya founder and CEO Navid Akhtar. "Three members of our board are ex-BBC and British media creativity is highly valued across the world. In addition to our browser-based player, we are seeing a huge opportunity to collaborate with mobile operators. We have a deal in discussion with Axiata, one of Southeast Asia's largest telecommunication groups, to bundle Alchemiya to 90 mobile subscribers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and we are looking for suitable partners in other regions."

Alchemiya already has a deal with the BBC and plans to increase its production portfolio, building apps for mobiles and smart TVs, including titles that celebrate the British Muslim contribution to Britain. It also believes that with it says, three-fifths of the global Muslim population under the age of 30, a new generation of Muslim Millennials are expected to be among the most influential market demographics, shaping both regional and mainstream markets.

"There are both push and pull factors that are opening up a huge opportunity, for us", added Akhtar. "What initially was considered a niche audience is now a hyper niche, as more people go online looking for their primary television experience. In the case of our core audience they are under-served and caught between conservative religious television or the western mainstream that doesn't reflect their values or aspirations. There is a Muslim London 'cool' that Muslims from across the globe want to experience, and we have around us the creative talent that produces this."

The Alchemiya Crowdcube pitch is available at www.crowdcube.com/alchemiya