Anvato raises $2M to bust and monetize copyrighted videos
Anvato, a company that has developed a way to identify videos anywhere on the web using visual detection technology, brought in a $2 million tranche of an anticipated $4 million first-round of funding. The Mountain View, Calif. company is significant because it’s able to recognize video content no matter what kind of title or meta data it comes bundled with. This is especially important with so many user-generated videos being posted and passed around with inaccurate information attached.
The service has found its sweet spot with video publishers who want to find their copyrighted material wherever it might be hiding on the internet. That way they can request that the offending videos be removed, or they can choose to monetize what already exists with customizable and targeted ad campaigns available through a central Anvato dashboard.
The company’s software, operating via a visual algorithm, acts like a human eye to identify scenes, objects and movements within videos no matter how poor the resolution or editing, even if it’s been given a new audio track or spliced into a mash-up. But it’s not alone in this field. Auditude, another video fingerprinting startup, just struck deals with MTV and MySpace to detect and derive revenue from pirated videos. And Yahoo’s internal service Video ID follows suit.
Anvato last raised money in August, pulling in $550,000 for its initial launch (at the time it had already pinched 2,000 infringing videos). Investors in that round included Ogden Capital Group, Softbank Forums founder William Lohse and former Ziff-Davis interactive media president Jeff Ballowe. This recent investment was led by Oxantium Ventures.
Next Story: Using the web to design high school yearbooks
Previous Story: AlphaClone helps investors do their homework
About the Author, Camille Ricketts
Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.