Business

SHIFT Acquired by Private Equity Group

Cloud-based media collaboration and digital asset management solutions provider SHIFT has been acquired by Los Angeles-based Marlin Equity Partners, with the global investment firm completing a majority recapitalization of, and growth equity investment in, the company.

SHIFT — a February rebranding of video sharing tech company MediaSilo and file-sharing platform firm Wiredrive, following their merger a year earlier — now plans to expand the footprint of its SafeStream watermarking technology, following Marlin’s investment, and will make additional investments in security and build additional functionality for its new SHIFT platform, according to company CEO Kai Pradel.

“Marlin saw opportunity in this entertainment space, and we’re a good fit with the workflows we provide,” Pradel said, who added that there will be no changes to SHIFT’s leadership, under Marlin’s ownership. “Our products sit squarely at the heart of media production, and we’re uniquely positioned to add utility and technology to SHIFT that helps content creators maximize the value of their work all the way from on-set to distribution.”

Jonah Sulak, a managing director at Marlin, said the investment will allow SHIFT’s multi-tenant SaaS platform to better help media and entertainment companies, advertising agencies and production houses securely create and collaborate on creative work at all stages of the content production lifecycle, as well as embed visible and forensic watermarking into video and safely screen pre-release content.

“With Marlin’s investment, SHIFT is now poised to rapidly scale its next generation platform and deliver its solutions to a broader audience that encompasses enterprises as well as the freelance creatives and small production houses that surround them,” Sulak said.

“As video creation has exploded beyond traditional channels, SHIFT has evolved into a trusted partner to enterprises who need reliable, secure and innovative ways to share and distribute their creative content, whether collaborating on works-in-progress or creating reels of finished work to help sell their next project,” Pradel added. “With Marlin, we have found a partner who recognizes our position as the premier software provider to global media enterprises and supports our strategy to capture a broader share of the content creation market.”