Comcast Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of mass media group Comcast, took part in a $10m round for US-based live news and entertainment platform Cheddar.
Existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which also included fellow venture capital firm Ribbit Capital, and which followed almost $3m of series A funding led by Lightspeed in January this year.
Cheddar launched its live video broadcasting platform in April 2016. It utilises cloud-based video production to oversee multi-camera, multi-location programming that incorporates native advertising, allowing sponsors to be integrated into the editorial content of its shows.
The company has been making daily broadcasts from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Marketsite, and added a lifestyle show called Cheddar Life a few weeks ago.
Jon Steinberg, Cheddar’s founder and CEO, said: “We will use this capital to become a full-fledged live, linear cable network – except not on cable, but rather leading social and [over-the-top video] services.
“Comcast Ventures brings deep expertise in distribution to Cheddar. Ribbit is the country’s leading investor in fintech – this expertise will be essential as we continue to expand our business news programming. Finally, Lightspeed’s support and guidance since Cheddar was just an idea in my head has been unparalleled.”