Revver revs up with another round of funding

Revver, the Southern California-based video sharing service, has taken another round of funding. The $8.7 million B round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Richards and William Randolph Hearst III.

Revver has an interesting business model in that it attaches ads to videos that are uploaded to its site. This allows for a couple of things: The company doesn’t care where the videos are viewed or passed around to; the ads follow the videos. And it shares the ad revenue with the people who upload the videos.

“We see the entire network as a distribution platform that should monetize video as it moves across the network,” Revver CEO Steven Starr told us recently. In that sense, Revver is not necessarily a destination site itself. “My goal is for a vast amount to happen off the web site,” Starr said.

Revver isn’t just interested in amateur video. Starr said he would be delighted to host content from TV networks and affiliates.

We questioned whether there was enough of an appetite yet in the ad world for video advertising, particularly around amateur content. But Starr says he is swamped. “Right now, we’re way oversubscribed. We can’t supply enough video for advertisers.”

Users are encouraged to tag their videos, and Revver ultimately hopes to let advertisers buy campaigns that are targeted to certain types of video content (such as skateboarding), based on the tags.

The service launched in November. With additional funding, the company hopes to take the service out of beta by May.