RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—Digitalsmiths, which sells an innovative video search engine, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Cisco Systems.
A Venture Beat report pegs the amount at around $2 million, but Digitalsmiths CEO Ben Weinberger tells TechJournal South that’s incorrect, but declined to specify the amount.
Cisco’s Media Solutions Group made the investment. Digitalsmiths plans to use the funds to expand product development. “We’ll be releasing a couple of new products in the next two quarters as well as enhancing our existing products,” Weinberger says.
The new money follows the company’s $12 million second round raised in November and a previous $6 million A round.
Weinberger says the company’s success in attracting funding even in a down economy shows “What’s always been true: companies with solid business plans and revenue can raise financing.”
He says that Digitalsmith’s technology is converging with the widespread increase in broadband speeds and lower cost of digital storage, but what is really driving its success is that “Now people are tackling how to make money from online video.
“The rights holders know how to make money on the broadcast side. We’re helping them make money on the broadband side.”
Digitalsmiths presented at TechJournal South’s second annual Southeast Venture Conference (the third conference is set for March 11-12th, 2009 at the Intercontinental Buckhead in Atlanta, Georgia (see www.seventure.org for more information).
Founded in 1998, the company originally established itself as an interactive design and development firm and profitably navigated the dotcom boom and bust. But in 2005, it started a transformation that today puts it on the cutting edge of video indexing and advertising.
In 2005, entrepreneur and engineer Matt Berry partnered with Weinberger and Digitalsmiths to develop an automated video indexing technology.
The resulting product, InScene, was designed to enable motion picture and television companies to maximize the value of their library material by digitizing video and making it easily searchable.
Since its introduction, major film and TV studios have used Digitalsmiths’ innovative system to manage and exploit content including feature films and television series.
It works like Google adsense does with text, helping marketers place context relevant marketing messages.
The company employs 35 and is hiring for a senior sales position, an operations position, and a couple of engineering positions. “We’re trying to beef up the infrastructure,” he says.
Online: www.digitalsmiths.com
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
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