iMetaFilm ‘Reels in’ Kelvin Capital Investors

Both parties previously invested £217,000 in what was simply a concept - the brainchild of Michael Howell, CEO of iMetaFilm – to make the digitisation of archived film reels not only simpler and less labour intensive, but higher quality, with more precise 4K and above scanning. Having used this initial investment to bring the concept to life in iMetaFilm's offices in Glasgow city centre, this latest funding round will allow the company to move to state of the art, custom-designed studios in the city, to increase their workforce, and to deliver on the many opportunities presenting themselves from the world's motion picture heritage.

Michael Howell of iMetaFilm said: “We are delighted with our investors' faith in us and our technology, and the opportunity that this funding presents. Moving images are our living history in a way that static images and objects can never be. This whole journey began when I realised that this living history was being lost, as conventional technologies were simply inadequate and unaffordable. Our unique process now makes it viable for organisations to view reels, determine their value, and to move to digitisation and audio quickly, simply and inexpensively. Our MetaWeaver software also rationalises storage, and enables content to be multi-lingual and searchable. This transforms our moving image heritage into a huge, targeted source of content for the upcoming digital broadcasters and film-makers.”

Angus Hay, Investment Director at Kelvin Capital said “Imetafilm have made technical advances never previously seen. Not only have they managed to digitise reels that were so fragile and precious due to the passage of time and bring previously forgotten footage back to life, but they have developed a process to recover the audio that would have been lost forever. Our investors were not only impressed with the iMetaFilm team but are very excited about the possibilities for this technology and the applications worldwide and are delighted to be a part of this exciting, Scottish business.”

Kerry Sharp, Head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said “iMetaFilm is a great example of the growing, innovative companies that Scottish Enterprise is keen to support. We look forward to continuing to work with iMetaFilm as it develops its business and workforce, helping the company to achieve its ambition to be a global force in archive film digitisation.”