We’ve heard a rumor that Vudu, a startup seeking to bring internet video to your television, has raised more than $40 million of funding. Our source says hedge funds are the likely backers.
I emailed the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company a few minutes ago, and I’ll update if they get back to us.
We haven’t heard of too many other fundings in this area, mainly because the market seems dominated by big players like Apple and Comcast. Vudu already raised $21 million back in 2005, so if the rumors are true, the company will have a pretty big war chest.
We’ve heard good things about Vudu — whose big selling point appears to be the speed of its peer-to-peer technology, and whose service launched last September — but it will definitely need all the money it can get to take on challengers such as Apple TV and Netflix (which later this summer is releasing a living room box in conjunction with LG). Earlier this year, Vudu dropped the price of its set-top box from $399 to $295 in a pre-emptive move to take on the newcomers.
The company may also be looking to expand its offerings: Recently, chief executive Mark Jung said he’s willing to “experiment with everything, save just two core things: the user interface and the ability to transmit high-quality video on the turn of a dime,” and that Vudu will try out ad-supported content, according to NewTeeVee.
2 Comments
-
len nam said:
I believe the figure is closer to 50 million at a time when most other small or large companies can’t get money for any reason. There is already national distribution, but I believe there are a number of companies getting ready to roll it out in further depth across the country. That’s the reason for building the money. They are aggressive with ten times more films than Apple TV and 1080p for Vudu vs 720p for Apple. There engineers seem to be able to do a better job by far than the competitors. Netflix went with LG to develop a STB, but that’s because Netflix scrapped two years of engineering that didn’t work when they tried it on their own. LG is known for hard electronics, so I doubt that they will have the savy of Vudu, where their software interface is definitely superior to Apple. If Apple can’t catch them in software engineering, then I doubt LG will be able. Time will tell. In the meantime, Vudu is working. They have had 12 software upgrades so far (see elsewhere on the web.)
LN
-
Anthony Ha said:
@len nam: Very interesting. Thanks.
One Trackback
10:55 pm
The Netflix Roku box tosses the freshly emerged Apple TV right back in the woods — and they’re thicker » VentureBeat said:
[...] another streaming-to-television video device which retails for around $300. Vudu is rumored to have raised $40 million in funding last [...]