You’ve seen videos of celebrities giving shout outs to ordinary people like you and me online and it turns out that the people behind it, ACE, a Singapore-based personalised celebrity video platform, has recently raised S$550K in pre-seed funding!
This is through Manila Angel Investors Network (MAIN) and celebrity investor Max Loong as well as angel investors hailing from Grab, Carousell, Ayden Payments, and Google, to propel global growth of the largest celebrity shout-out platform in Southeast Asia.
ACE will be using this fresh injection of funds for the rapid scaling of ACE’s talent and consumer base both regionally and globally, with domination of the Southeast Asian market in sight. The company aims to unite a traditionally distant celebrity-fan dynamic and revolutionise the entertainment industry with accessible, authentic celebrity connections.
Founded in November 2019 by Dene Schonknecht, ACE is short for Authentic Celebrity Experiences and is a collaborative platform designed for fans to connect directly with their heroes or favourite celebrities for exclusive content. This can be done via short, personalised video messages – be it birthday songs, words of encouragement or answers to burning questions – for a small fee, set by each ACE talent.
In just 9 short months, ACE has signed up over 160 regional and international celebrities on their platform, including an overwhelming number of the biggest Southeast Asian celebrities and influencers. With Singapore’s homegrown stars and influencers such as Kumar, Gurmit Singh, Hossan Leong, Patricia Mok, Xiaxue, and many more already featured on their star-studded catalogue, this round of funding enhances ACE’s capabilities to venture into the global Western markets.
As a testament to this new focus, ACE has just successfully signed the main cast of Netflix’s reality TV hit show “Selling Sunset” to their platform last month. allowing the stars like Christine Quinn, Mary Fitzgerald and Amanza Smith to better connect with their fans in the Asian region.
