Chris Blackwell's PalmPictures has secured a new round of funding anchored by a"significant" investment from Latin America's Grupo SantoDomingo and also including additional funding from long-time Palm Picturesinvestor Avalon Capital Group.

Grupo Santo Domingo is adiversified Latin American company with assets in broadcast television, radioand print media; Avalon is the equity investment vehicle for Ted Waitt,founder, chairman and CEO of Gateway Inc.

The new capital will be usedto further build the company which is focused on using new technology platformsincluding DVD and the internet to deliver entertainment to consumers. It hasalso picked up two high profile foreign language pictures of late fortraditional theatrical distribution - Julio Medem's Sex Y Lucia and Oxide and Danny Pang's The Eye.

In a statement, Palmfounder, chairman and CEO Blackwell said:"Palm Pictures' businessmodel relies on delivering to consumers using digital technologies like the DVDricher and more diverse entertainment offering.storytelling in music and image,and this model has attracted savvy international investors that who bringtremendous value to our business.We are trying to empowering a newgeneration of digital storytellers, to use the full palette of technologiesavailable, to create cutting-edge music and images that take full advantage ofthe DVD format.make the most of the palette of new technologies available to usto create cutting-edge audio/visual content that takes full advantage of theDVD format.."

Palm was advised in thetransaction with Grupo Santo Domingo by the investment banking firm of Violy,Byorum & Partners.

Grupo Santo Domingo, founded112 years ago, is still a family-owned conglomerate which owns Caracol TV &Radio in Colombia as well as the country's leading newspaper ElEspectador and entertainment magazine company Cromos. The company also hasinterests in DirecTV Colombia, cable TV franchise TV Cable in Bogota andcellular phone operator BellSouth Colombia. Other investments include beveragebusinesses, automotive, aviation, real estate, retailing, packaging and oil andgas sectors.