Vuulr
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Vuulr was a Singapore-based online marketplace for international film and television content rights. Built on blockchain, it connected content owners, buyers and sponsors so that broadcasters and platforms could discover, evaluate and trade TV and film rights without the slow, expensive middlemen of the traditional content-acquisition process. Its model was 'free to list, pay on success', and at its peak it described itself as the largest B2B film and TV content marketplace, with thousands of buyers including Disney, the BBC, Turner and Zee.
02 / Vuulr FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The original Vuulr business closed in 2023 after it was unable to secure investment for its next phase of growth. The company had been born in the ICO era - it ran a 2018 token sale for its VUU token - and the crypto winter drained both its funding model and investor appetite. Meanwhile the content-rights industry proved slow to change: deals are still struck the old-fashioned way through entrenched intermediaries, and a blockchain-based marketplace, however elegant, could not dislodge them without far more capital than Vuulr could raise.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launched
Ian McKee and Ben Heyhoe Flint launch Vuulr in Singapore as a blockchain-based marketplace for international TV and film rights, backed by endorsements from Mediacorp, MNC and Endemol Shine; the company runs a 2018 ICO for its VUU token.
- Partnership
Liquid Media partners with Vuulr on a strategic content-marketplace deal; Vuulr says independent filmmakers get access to more than 7,500 buyers and distributors worldwide.
- Original business closes
The original Vuulr business closes after failing to secure investment for its next phase of growth.
- Relaunch
New owners reactivate Vuulr in late 2025, bringing Ben Heyhoe Flint back to develop a rebuilt platform targeting creator and studio rights sales, with some 21,000 titles from 6,000 creators.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
After its 2018 ICO-era fundraising, Vuulr could not secure investment for its next phase of growth, and the original business closed in 2023.
- 02
New owners acquired the business and invested in rebuilding the platform and expanding its focus beyond traditional content catalogues.
- 03
Vuulr was reactivated in late 2025 under the new ownership, targeting creator and studio rights sales with AI-assisted discovery and matching.