Video over the Internet co Tvinci raises $4.5m

The financing round was led by the company's existing investors Kaedan Capital and Zohar Gilon, and new investor Trellas Enterprises.

15 October 12 16:01, Globes correspondent

Video over the Internet platform provider Tvinci today announced that it has closed a $4.5 million financing round that was led by the company's existing investors Kaedan Capital and Zohar Gilon, and new investor Trellas Enterprises. The funds will be invested in the start up's OTT 2.0 Platform development, and international expansion into new markets.

The announcement comes, Tvinci says, as the world looks to the concept of delivering video over the internet (‘Over-the-Top’) as the major way in which consumers will access the growing amount of available video content and programming. Momentum for the consumption of content in this manner continues to grow and Tvinci cites industry analyst group comScore's VideoMetrix service, which recently reported that in August 2012 an all-time high of 188 million US Internet users watched 37.7 billion online content videos.

Tel Aviv based Tvinci was founded in 2007 by CEO Ofer Shayo, VP business development Ido Wiesenberg and CTO Guy Barkan.

The company adds that the latest investment follows the most successful year to date in Tvinci’s five year history. Tvinci has seen revenue double every year since 2008, and triple in 2012 compared with 2011. It has secured 7 new TV operators as customers, including Liberty Global, owner of multiple cable operators throughout Europe; Elisa, Finland’s second largest telco operator; and other major media companies and operators in Europe and Asia, to be announced in the coming months.

To answer the growing demand for its technology and services, Tvinci will grow its staff from 25 to 50 employees by the end of the year.

Shayo said, “Five years ago we began to advocate cross-device Pay-OTT TV as the future of video delivery for both TV operators and industry newcomers, and we are now truly seeing its widespread adoption. We now see a 'second wave’ of OTT deployments - cable, satellite and telco TV operators that launched multiple video apps and websites over the past 3-4 years, now incorporating OTT video as part of their core TV offering, and looking to do more than just stream content to connected devices. Our OTT 2.0 platform answers this immediate need not only for a new delivery method to connected devices, but also a brand new TV experience."