Big Frame, Which Makes Money Off YouTube Videos, Raises $3 Million in Funding Round

A company called Big Frame, which helps monetize popular YouTube personalities and also produces original Internet campaigns for clients like Disney, 20th Century Fox and BBC America, has raised $3 million in its first financing round.

The company said Wednesday that investors include wealthy individuals along with Anthem Venture Partners, Daher Capital, DFJ Frontier, LaunchPad LA, New World Ventures, the Media Farm and Social Starts.

Big Frame also runs BAMMO, one of about 100 YouTube channels to receive a portion of $150 million allocated as seed money in an advertising revenue-share initiative YouTube announced eight months ago.

BAMMO features videos from YouTube stars like MysteryGuitarMan and Mike Diva.

One of Big Frame's most high-profile successes was the creation of some online videos to promote Chronicle, a Fox movie that earned $22 million domestically its opening weekend in February.

"The movie came out of nowhere to become No. 1 its opening weekend, and they only marketed over the Internet," said Big Frame CEO Steve Raymond. "So it was definitely a successful campaign."

A video promoting Chronicle that stars YouTube personality DeStorm Power and was viewed nearly 600,000 times is embedded below.

Big Frame is based in Los Angeles and employs 16 people full time, "and we're in hiring mode," Raymond said.

"You're going to start to see established companies trying to figure out how to interact with YouTube, and they'll want to work with us," he said.