AAA Kaltura captures $47m

Kaltura captures $47m

The rapid adoption and popularity of video around the globe is a testament to the central role that video plays in every facet of our connected lives, whether at home, school, on the go or in the office. The sales revenues that can be generated and analysed by linked video production and distribution are also a big play for venture and corporate venturing investors as witnessed by the latest fundraising by US open source video platform company, Kaltura.

New investors SAP Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Commonfund Capital, and Brazil’s Gera Ventures with participation from existing investors .406 Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., and Silicon Valley Bank have invested $47m in the platform company. The latest round brings the company’s fundraising to date to $115m, of which only $1m is debt, according to CrunchBase.

The capital will be allocated to costs related to product development and expanding its operations into new markets, including Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Korea.

Kaltura customers include: leading media companies, such as HBO, ABC, Warner Brothers, Paramount, DirecTV, Turner, and Wikipedia; leading corporations such as Bank of America, Intel, SAP, Century 21, Ericsson, Danone, Discount Tire, Accenture, AstraZeneca, Groupon, Nestle, Philips and IKEA; and educational institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Durham, Warwick, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, California State University and NYU.   Kaltura distributors and channel partners include Atos, InterCall, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Ellemedia, and Cognos Online.

“SAP Ventures is excited to be joining forces with Kaltura.  Video is the way that most people prefer to consume information, which means video infrastructure is an essential element not only for media businesses, but also educational institutions and enterprises,” said David Hartwig, Managing Director at SAP Ventures.  

“We believe that Kaltura offers the most innovative solution, and a capable team which has executed flawlessly during the last few years.  It’s a great synergy because SAP Ventures is uniquely capable of helping Kaltura reach these three customer bases globally, with our recent addition of Market Development function to our firm,” said Hartwig.

According to Upal Basu, Partner at Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), video will soon constitute two thirds of all mobile data, and is therefore an area of great interest for the corporate venturing unit. “Kaltura’s business progress and market-leading HTML5 based video technology made it a natural choice for NGP. We look forward to collaborating closely with the company and assisting with global expansion,” said Basu.

The company’s opensource platform is also attractive to emerging markets, such as Brazil. “Kaltura has shown great traction in Latin America already, and we expect that to grow significantly now with this new backing and expansion in the region,” said Leila Orenstein, Partner at Gera Ventures. “We are especially excited about Kaltura’s business in the education sector, which is our own focus as well, but look forward to helping generate new business in all three target verticals through our broad network of connections.”

Pictured: David Hartwig, Managing Director at SAP Ventures

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