February 2009 Online Video Investments

April 17, 2009 — 4:47pm ET | By Pete Wylie

Tools

2/3/09

Mixpo

How much did the company raise?
$4 million, Series B

What does the company do?
Local online video advertising

Who are its investors?
Madrona Venture Group, Growthworks Capital Ltd.
Yaletown Venture Partners

What qualified Mixpo for this round of funding?
Mixpo CEO Anupam Gupta said Mixpo's channel strategy and focus on expanding online video advertising in the growing local market were critical to the company's fundraising success.

"There are a large number of local advertisers who are interested in online video advertising, but the obvious problem is how widely distributed they are," Gupta said. Gupta said Mixpo focuses on its core competencies in software and online services and works with channel partners with complimentary strengths in sales relationships to reach this dispersed audience. He said Mixpo has run thousands of localized campaigns and has used the experiences and feedback to determine the best way to use the venture funding to grow the business.

How does the company plan to deploy the capital it drew down?
Gupta said Mixpo plans to use the funding round to continue to develop its product and to expand its customer facing presence with hiring and training in sales, marketing and business development. He said the biggest obstacle to success for the company was ramping up a sales force and executing on the substantial market opportunity for local online video advertising.

"All advertisers have video assets, usually from their TV campaigns," Gupta said. "They are searching for growth and want measureable results. Local media is in transition, and we're seeing advertisers recognizing the opportunity to expand their audiences with online video."

2/18/09

OVGuide.com

How much did the company raise?
$5 million, Series B

What does the company do?
Online video recommendation, discovery and search

Who is the company's investor?
Baroda Ventures, LLC

What qualified OVGuide.com for this round of funding?
Chad Cooper, vice president of sales and marketing, said OVGuide.com capitalizes on a need to discover and order online videos in an increasingly crowded environment. He said the site's mix of editorial insight and engineering around search and discovery makes it a defendable concept that's not easily mirrored or replicated by competitors.

Cooper said the site does about 100 million page views per month, and obviously the heavy traffic was another plus for the company as it sought funding. OVGuide.com also has very positive relationships with content publishers and aggregators, as OVGuide.com drives significant traffic to video destinations.

How does the company plan to deploy the capital it drew down?
OVGuide.com plans to continue to build out and refine its proprietary search engine technology. It's expanding its international presence as well with investment in server space. Cooper said the company is perfecting its user interface and working to monetize its search results with a contextual advertising partner. He said the company is still heavily in a development phase, and required the additional capital to scale the company.

Related article
OVGuide.com raises $5M, shows profit in Jan.

2/19/09

Tremor Media

How much did the company raise?
$18 million, Series C

What does the company do?
Online video advertising network

Who are the company's investors?
Meritech Capital Partners
Canaan Partners, Masthead Venture Partners, European Founders Fund

What qualified Tremor Media for this round of funding?
Shane Steele, vice president of marketing for Tremor Media, said the company received the round in large part because of its Acudeo ad serving technology. Steele said the company's strong international footprint also was a factor in the funding.

Perhaps the most impressive qualification: Tremor has grown revenues by triple digits each of the last three years.

How does the company plan to deploy the capital it drew down?
Steele said Tremor Media will accelerate additional product development with the funding round, as well as look to grow the Acudeo install base. The company wants to continue to expand its video network footprint, while also expanding overseas.