JW Player Secures $20 Million in Series C Funding

NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- JW Player, a leading online and mobile video platform and player technology company, announced today that it has completed a $20 million Series C financing round. The financing round was led by Greycroft Growth and Greenspring Associates, and included participation from Cueball Capital and e.ventures.  The company will use the investment to further accelerate its rapid global growth, expand its sales, marketing, product, and engineering initiatives, and add to its data-driven software-as-a-service platform.

"We are delighted to expand our partnership with JW Player," said Ian Sigalow, co-founder and Partner, Greycroft. "Since making our initial investment at the end of 2012, the company has executed incredibly well and, as a result of that, has seen its customer base and user footprint grow exponentially.  With this new infusion of capital, JW Player now has additional resources to aggressively drive innovation and extend its leadership position in digital video."  

JW Player was founded as an open-source project and served as the the original player for YouTube. Since then, the company has grown to become one of the world's most widely distributed video services, delivering nearly five percent of all video streamed on the planet. Each month, over 900 million people watch video through JW Player across more than two million mobile and Web-based sites. The company also has a thriving enterprise business with 200 members of the Fortune 1000 as customers today.

"In a very short period of time, online video has moved from an experimental initiative for publishers to a core component of their business strategy," said Dave Otten, CEO and co-founder of JW Player.  "Publishers are seeking video solutions that will help them grow and more-effectively monetize their audiences across mobile, desktop, and OTT devices.  At JW Player, we are squarely focused on leveraging our enormous footprint to create what we call the 'open video ecosystem', a network of connected players that provides publishers with unique insights around how people are engaging with video.  This new round of financing will help us dramatically accelerate these efforts."

JW Player will use the new funding to accelerate its path towards the industry's first open video ecosystem. Using anonymous data gathered across its giant, global network of video content publishers and audiences, JW Player's open video ecosystem enables publishers, advertisers, agencies, and video ad networks to glean actionable insights for their overall business objectives.  This will enable enhanced video discovery, content monetization, and audience segmentation in the future.  Leveraging the millions of publishers who already work with JW Player, the company has built-in distribution for unique solutions around video viewability, cross-platform publishing, and monetization.

"One of our most important assets at JW Player is the team.  We are very proud of the group we have assembled, with strong domain and industry-leading knowledge, and a passion for building a great company.  We're committed to driving innovation and the next wave of video technology. Focusing on our people, like we do our technology, clients, and partners, has been a key asset.  The work of our talented team will continue to benefit publishers, content producers, advertisers, and video viewers across the globe," said Chris Mahl, President of JW Player.

About JW Player
JW Player pioneered video on the web and is now innovating for the future. Started in 2008 as the world's first open source video player, today the company's customers span the globe across 193 countries and range from Fortune 500 companies to individual bloggers. The company's flagship product, JW Player, is live on more than 2 million sites with 9 billion video streams to 900 million monthly unique viewers across all devices — phones, tablets, and desktops. Nearly five percent of all video streams worldwide are delivered through JW Player. In addition to the player, the company's services include video hosting and streaming, advertising, and analytics. For more information, see www.jwplayer.com.

ABOUT GREYCROFT PARTNERS
Greycroft Partners is a leading venture capital firm focused on investments in the Internet and mobile markets. With offices in the two media capitals of the world - New York and Los Angeles – Greycroft is uniquely positioned to serve entrepreneurs who have chosen us as their partners.  Greycroft leverages an extensive network of media and technology industry connections to help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build strategic relationships, successfully bring their products to market, and build successful businesses. Greycroft manages $600 million and has made over 100 investments since inception, including leading companies such as AppAnnie, Baublebar, Braintree, Buddy Media, Collective, Extreme Reach, Huffington Post, JW Player, Klout, Maker Studios, Plain Vanilla, Pulse, TheRealReal, Trunk Club and WideOrbit.  For more information please visit the Greycroft Partners website at www.greycroftpartners.com.

Media Contacts:
Amy Liu, JW Player
[email protected]
212-244-0140

Hannah Slocum, Grayling
[email protected]
646-284-9413

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SOURCE JW Player