DigitalSmiths raises $12M for Video Indexing, Analytics, and White Label Video Publishing
By Azam on November 13, 2008 
DigitalSmiths a video indexing, analytics, and white label publishing firm raised $12 million Series B round of funding that was led by .406 Ventures, Aurora Funds, and Chrysalis Ventures. The current round of funding will be used to accelerate Digitalsmiths’ product development initiatives with a view to extending the technological leadership and engineering innovation that has kept the company several steps ahead of its competition throughout its history.
“We analyze video frame by frame,” according Ben Weinberger, chief executive of Digitalsmiths. “We have more than 20,000 hours of video indexed.” The data collected is intended to help video producers make more informed sales forecasts and advertising decisions. The company can help video producers publish their videos to a wide range of sites. But it can also capture data on which parts of the videos everyone is watching and report back to the producer on what worked and what didn’t.
“After looking at numerous potential digital video investments, the magnitude of opportunity at Digitalsmiths became crystal clear and we are delighted to have led this financing round,” said Maria Cirino, Managing Director, .406 Ventures. “The quality of Digitalsmiths’ indexing and analytics is unparalleled and as such offers exciting possibilities to content providers and advertisers looking for newer and more promising ways to monetize vast amounts of internet video. The traction that Digitalsmiths has already achieved with blue-chip customers speaks volumes for the company’s market-leading technology and is a credit to Ben and his talented team.”
Earlier, the company had won TMZ as a client away from Brightcove. Digitalsmiths competes against a number of firms in the video search, index, and video hosting area: Brightcove, Ooyala,Videosurf are among others in the competitive space.
About Digitalsmiths
Digitalsimths is an innovative video indexing and digital content publishing technology provider serving major Hollywood studios, web video destinations, media companies and advertisers. The company’s proprietary computer-vision based video indexing, search and interpretation algorithms empower content owners and publishers to efficiently monetize their digital video content, and advertisers to automatically target ads to thematically relevant video content. Digitalsmiths’ robust digital content publishing system and integrated video player enable simplified multi-platform content syndication, intelligent content recommendations, and detailed reporting and analytics. This powerful combination of Digitalsmiths tools and features improves the web user experience and extends site session times, creating new revenue opportunities for publishers.
Digitalsmiths is located in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The privately held company is backed by venture capitalists including .406 Ventures, The Aurora Funds and Chrysalis Ventures.
Reading List
CNet Digitalsmiths lands $12m for Video Services
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VentureBeat Digitalsmiths raises $12M for Video search and Analytics
Categories : Media & AdsTags : , .406 Ventures, Analytics, Aurora Funds, Chrysalis Ventures, TMZ, Video Hosting, Video Indexing, Video Search