With $20M, JW Player wants video publishers to look past YouTube

Video startup JW Player has raised a fresh $20 million round of funding to grow beyond its status as one of the most used non-YouTube video players.

It’s a SaaS video platform, and it powers one of the largest open-source video players available, so the chances are pretty good that nearly everyone surfing the web has used it at least once before. The company claims that about five percent of all video streamed happens through its JW Player across 2 million sites to 900 million monthly unique viewers. JW Player is significant because it’s a solution for video publishers who find they can’t generate enough revenue through YouTube alone.

“At JW Player, we are squarely focused on leveraging our enormous footprint to create what we call the ‘open video ecosystem,’ a network of connected players that provides publishers with unique insights around how people are engaging with video,” said JW Player founder and CEO Dave Otten in a statement.

The startup said it plans to use the additional capital to continue growing the business, as well as expand its sales, marketing, and more. It will also use the funding to further develop its SaaS platform to give video publishers better insights on the content they produce.

Founded in 2008, the New York-based startup has raised a total of $25.6 million in funding to date. The new round was led by by Greycroft Growth and Greenspring Associates, with participation from Cueball Capital and e.ventures.