Evolution Media, a joint venture between talent agency CAA and private equity firm TPG, led a $20m series B round for US-based video optimisation technology developer Mux on Wednesday.
Venture capital firm Accel and accelerator Y Combinator also participated in the round, which boosted the company’s overall funding to about $32m.
Founded in 2015, Mux has created a software platform that helps video content owners improve the viewing quality of content streamed online through web, smartphone and over-the-top television services.
The software exploits machine learning algorithms and encoding techniques to optimise video streams, retaining picture quality without placing excessive demands on a viewer’s internet bandwidth, which can result in problems like buffering.
The platform’s interface is designed to be straightforward for the client’s software engineers, and Mux also markets a data analytics service with tools that measure streaming stability and performance.
The company plans to use the series B cash to entrench its market position by investing in its sales, customer success and research and development teams, while looking to strengthen its developer ecosystem.
Gautam Shah, vice-president for investments at Evolution Media, said: “Developers are leading the charge in selecting technology they want to use and creating new industry standards. Mux’s developer-focused approach to managing the video infrastructure stack is changing the way companies monitor and manage video.”
Accel led a $9m series A round for Mux in April 2017 that featured Y Combinator, Susa Ventures, Advancit Capital, SV Angel, Lowercase Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures and private investors including James Lindenbaum and Ilya Sukhar.
All the institutional series A investors bar Accel had contributed to the company’s $2.8m seed round the previous year.