Cotendo is announcing today it has raised $12 million to expand its business of accelerating web sites through a new kind of content delivery network.
A CDN is a web infrastructure that helps speed the delivery of web content, such as video, to users. Big companies such as Akamai have deployed lots of delivery caches around the internet so that they can make sure that a popular video can be viewed by as many people as possible. But Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cotendo says it has a way to improve on this infrastructure.
The technology is aimed at Internet content providers -- enterprises, online retailers, financial services firms, ad networks, news and social media sites -- who need to have fast, secure and reliable web site acceleration as traffic ebbs and flows. Sites that use this kind of technology can get consumers to stick around longer, which translates to better monetization, loyalty, and better returns for the web site owner.
The market for this kind of CDN service is expected to grow to $2 billion in 2012, according to Tier1 market research.
The funding was led by Tenaya Capital. Sequoia Capital and Benchmark Capital also invested. The company plans to use the money to expand its domestic and international market reach and accelerate its technology development.
"Vessels run faster after the barnacles have been scraped from the side of their hulls. The same is true for websites," said Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia Capital, in a statement. "With Cotendo, website operators can peel away the crustaceous encroachments of the last decade and massively speed up the delivery of their content."
I have no idea what that means, but I love the analogy. If this works out for Cotendo, I imagine that Moritz will be able to afford to scrape barnacles off of all of his yachts. Cotendo was founded in 2008 and has raised $22 million to date. Rivals include Akamai and other CDNs. More than 100 customers have signed up since March, 2009.