No sooner had I finished posting this item about the reliance of the Obama campaign on Internet video pioneer Brightcove than I had received a message from Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire alerting me to some big news about his company: Brightcove just raised $59.5 million in a strategic funding round.
Led by AllianceBernstein L.P., Brookside Capital LLC, Maverick Capital, Ltd., the round also raised funds from The New York Times Company and Transcosmos Investments & Business Development. Also participating were existing investors Accel Partners, Allen & Company LLC, AOL, General Catalyst Partners, The Hearst Corporation, and IAC/InterActiveCorp.
This is Brightcove’s second big funding announcement. In November 2005, the company landed $16.2 million in funding from Accel, Allen & Company, etc., and snagged media mogul Barry Diller, head of IAC/InterActiveCorp, as a board member.
The series C round will go toward continued development of Brightcove’s platform, but is also aimed at helping the hot IP video pioneer expand internationally. Two of the new investors are particularly noteworthy — the New York Times Company, already a Brightcove customer, could propel Brightcove ahead even faster by greater translation of news into video across its industry leading web properties and Transcomos gives Brightcove access to the Japanese market.
In his blog, Allaire says that 2007 will be a big year for Internet video, but also a big year for consolidation in the gajillion Internet video start-ups. Based on this big vote of confidence, Brightcove will probably end this year as an acquirer not an acquiree.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:39 AM|Comments(0)
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