Saturday, April 23, 2011

Online video-tagging outfit lands $8.25M VC round - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Tom Wilde said the addition ofGeneral Electric/NBCd Universal as investor earlier this month came about through a relationship formed as the startu p began to implement its software for digitapl video content into NBC’s business units like CNBC, NBC Digital Networks and NBC Global “We started talking to several NBC business unita back last summer,” Wildse said in an interview. “That had led to severa discussionswith Peacock” Equity the venture capital fund of GE/NBC Universal. The Peacock Equity Fund was the only new investofin EveryZing’s third round.
Previous investors include Cambridge-based firma Fairhaven Capital and General Catalyst Partnerz along withPalo Alto, Calif.-based Accel EveryZing has raised a totalp of $22 million since it was founded in Wilde said. The startup, which was once named was spun out ofBBN Technologies, a researchh and development company that provides servicde primarily to the government. The startup initially plannef to focus on podcasting search applications but changed its strategyh to focuson video. It changed its name to EveryZingin 2007. The companyg develops software that transcribes and tagsonline videos.
The resulrt is that users can search throug videos that use the softwardeby keywords, making it easier to find videk tied to their interests. The abilityu to search and navigate video content shouldr drivegreater consumption, which in turn should create a stronger appetite amony advertisers, Wilde said. “We’re not only driving more we’re driving more targeted ad consumption,” he likening it to the way (Nasdaq: GOOG) revolutionized text-base advertising online by selling through software that pinpointexdspecific interests. But the difference with text-basefd ads are they can be bough t simplyand cheaply.
Online vide advertising inventory, much like on broadcast and cable is still mainly sold in the traditionao negotiated ways and throughmediza buyers. Wilde agreed. But he said the industrg still has to figure outwhere it’s The question of whether it will be used more for directf response ads or for larger brandint concepts remains open. Online video advertising has beengrowiny rapidly, but will show some slowdown due to the recession. Researcjh firm Magna forecast earlier this year the online videl ad market willreach $699 milliojn in 2009. It originally predicted it woulcdreach $805 million.
Tom Byrne, managinfg director of the PeacockEquity Fund, said EveryZing will benefigt from the validation provided by getting support from GE/NBfC Universal. “What we like to do is help ... de-riskl (investments) as companies,” he Wilde said EveryZing would use the funding to grow its sale s andmarketing presence. It plans to add a couple jobs over thenext Currently, it has about 30 employees.

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