Chill.com, the infamous Turntable for video, is announcing today that it has raised a $1.5 million angel round from Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint, Atlas Venture and investor Paul Kedrosky. The site, entry to which was then shut down at some point due to popular demand, is also now open to all users.
Chill co-founder Brian Norgard tells me that a lot has happened to Chill since early this August, when the startup garnered attention from mainstream media due to an offhand Facebook comment from Mark Zuckerberg on the app’s Facebook wall spamming.
In the past month, interest from content partners like MovieClips, Break and USTREAM has been “off the charts” according to Norgard. Much like the actual Turntable.fm, the app, which allows people to DJ sets of YouTube videos for spectators, also seems to have celebrity appeal; SnoopDog ran a branded #PUFFPUFFPASSTUESDAYS Chill set today and Norgard is planning on on-boarding a few more celebrities in the next week.
Norgard plans on using the new financing for hiring and building out the product, and has his sights set on partnerships. He says that he’s already talked to some Hollywood studios about holding their own content premieres on Chill.
“Collaborative consumption around long form content is really interesting too. We’re seeing huge opportunity there — Basically watching movies with friends,” he explains. “That will take time though but the market clearly wants an offering like this. If we can mange to make video social we’ll have created something millions of people will love. That’s the hope.”
Chill will be closing the angel round with other high-profile angels and as mentioned in our original article, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has agreed to participate as an investor.
Note: As noted above, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is investing in Chill. You can read more about his investment policy here
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