Vidyo Secures $15 Million In Funding
According to Hackensack, N.J.-based Vidyo, Menlo Ventures led the charge to fuel Vidyo's high-definition video and personal telepresence efforts.
The addition of the $15 million in financing brings the total amount of capital raised by Vidyo to $38 million since the company was established in 2005.
"We're in a growth mode," said Vidyo CEO Ofer Shapiro, adding that Vidyo expects its business to triple in 2009. "We're moving aggressively and we needed money for expansion. The fact that we can raise the money in this environment is impressive."
Shapiro said the $15 million in funding won't prompt a change in strategy for Vidyo or its channel partners, but noted that with more money for growth, it will help the company scale to better serve the channel.
"It makes the whole execution of the channel strategy much smoother," he said, adding that being backed by a major venture capital firm confirms it has a differentiating position in the market. "When you take the financial concern out of the equation, you can address more people. Economic downturns are opportunities for companies to disrupt the market."
Menlo Ventures was joined by other investors including Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures. Along with leading the round of funding, Menlo Ventures' managing director Doug Carlisle has joined the Vidyo board of directors.
"The fact that we are able to raise a substantial amount of funding from such top-tier investors during this global economic downturn speaks volumes about the strength of our technology and products in the videoconferencing market," Shapiro said in a statement.
Vidyo, which was featured in Channelweb.com's Emerging Vendors blog, makes high-definition personal telepresence videoconferencing systems the company says "enables anyone, anywhere and at any time to communicate in multiparty conferences with natural HD video quality over the Internet and general-purpose IP networks."
Vidyo said the additional funding will help it expand sales, marketing and product-development efforts and offer better support to its growing stable of channel partners and customers. Currently, Vidyo has 53 partners worldwide.
Vidyo emerged from stealth mode in the fall of 2007 and since then has been recognized for its advancements in next-generation IP videoconferencing, receiving awards including the Best of Interop and Frost & Sullivan's 2009 Conferencing and Collaboration Product of the Year.
Vidyo is playing in a growing space that research firm Frost & Sullivan said will grow to $4.2 billion in annual revenues by 2014, with a six-year compound annual growth rate of 16.3 percent from 2008 to 2013.
Menlo Ventures, which made a small initial investment in Vidyo last year to evaluate its product offerings, agreed that the video market is booming and Vidyo has a bright future.
"We see Vidyo's potential to disrupt the videoconferencing market," said Carlisle in a statement. "In monitoring the company's development over the past six months, we have observed their formation of important partnerships and rapid market acceptance. We are convinced that Vidyo will see significant growth in 2009."