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Bitmovin announces funding for expansion

Cloud-based video encoding specialist Bitmovin arrived at IBC fresh from a funding round that saw the US- and Austria-based company raise $10.3 million to support its expansion.

The funds from the series A round, led by Atomico, will be used to accelerate the development of video playback technologies for existing and new platforms, including 360-degree video for virtual reality (VR).

Angel investors backing the company include a number of big names in the video and virtual reality spheres. David Helgason, founder of Unity, Chris Kaiser, former VP of engineering at Netflix and YouTube, and Edward Kozel, former CTO of Cisco, have all participated in the round, together with the existing investors Dawn Capital, Speedinvest and Y Combinator.

Bitmovin was founded by the co-creators of the MPEG-DASH video streaming standard, which is used by industry leaders like Netflix and YouTube and currently accounts for 50% of U.S. peak internet traffic. The company’s ambition is to lay the groundwork for a future dominated by video content: by 2020, 80% of internet traffic will be given over to video in all its forms, including virtual reality and 360-degree video.

Stefan Lederer, CEO of Bitmovin, said the latest round of investment will help the company to continue improving its product.

“At a time when net neutrality has risen up the political agenda, we are determined to increase the speed and quality of video playback on any platform whilst also reducing the bandwidth needed to power the technology,” Lederer said.