• by Ross Fadner , June 12, 2012

DramaFever, a NY-based video startup that licenses the rights to distribute foreign TV dramas over the Internet, added Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, cable network AMC and Nala Investments to its already high-profile list of investors, completing a $6 million Series B funding round. 

The Series B round, initially announced in March for $4.5 million, was led by MK Capital and included YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Google product management director Benjamin Ling, Machinima co-founder and CEO Allen DeBevoise and Lowermybills.com founder and CEO Matt Coffin.

In an interview with GigaOm, DramaFever co-founder and CEO Seung Bak said the new investors were brought on board to help the company add to its roster of content and to venture into international markets.

Bak said Spanish-language telenovelas would be a particular focus for DramaFever’s expansion. As GigaOm points out, new partner Nala is an investment firm headed by Emilio Diez Barroso, whose family owns Televisa, the Mexican multimedia company which is the largest in Latin America. Bak added that Bertelsmann would be a great partner for European expansion and that Bollywood, K-Pop and programming from Turkey are all also in the company’s sights.

DramaFever is a niche-oriented programming provider that currently brings Korean dramas to the U.S. and Canada. Users can choose either to watch ad-supported shows for free or to subscribe to an ad-free version. DramaFever also supplies content to sites like Hulu and has been successful at delivery of new audiences: Bak tells GigaOm that 75 percent of its viewers are not Asian, for example.