Conviva Secures $15 Million Round of Funding Led by GGV Capital

SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Conviva Inc., an advanced streaming solutions provider, today announced that it has closed a $15 million Series C round of funding, bringing Conviva's total amount raised to $44 million since its launch in 2006. GGV Capital led the round with participation from existing investors Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Pelion Venture Partners (formerly UV Partners). Conviva has optimized over a billion video streams for some of the largest broadcasters on the Internet and will use the new financing to expand the company's global footprint, drive continued technology innovation and invest in new industry segments to meet the growing demand for high-quality, high-definition (HD) online video.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index(1), the amount of Internet traffic is expected to quadruple by 2014 and the primary driver for this growth is online video. To help content companies address the exploding demand for clear and reliable Internet video while maintaining a successful digital media business, Conviva's technology protects audiences from choppy video experiences, which in turn leads to longer viewing times and increased revenues.

"At GGV Capital, we seek to invest in great teams going after large market opportunities," said Glenn Solomon, partner, GGV Capital.  "In Conviva, we've found both.  Conviva's CEO, Darren Feher, along with founders Hui Zhang and Ion Stoica, have built a phenomenal team to address the surge in demand for high-quality online video.  Its customers consistently agree that Conviva is a 'must-have' to build an online video business.  We believe Conviva will continue to experience strong momentum as it leads the next wave of HD-broadcast quality video."

Conviva provides real-time visibility into each viewer's video session as well as the entire online video ecosystem to predict when an interruption is about to occur and, in advance, uses its proprietary switching technology to prevent an issue from reaching the viewer.  To sustain high-quality viewing, Conviva adds control intelligence to adaptive bit rate delivery and performs stream switching across multiple delivery networks. Conviva's expertise was recently demonstrated during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, where the company managed more than 200 million streams, reached more than 30 million unique viewers and handled three billion viewer minutes worldwide.

"While it is true that the demand for online video is accelerating, we have found up to 25 percent of all streams have inconsistencies such as re-buffering and interruptions, equating to lost revenue for media companies," said Darren Feher, president and CEO, Conviva. "At Conviva, we have proven that protected audiences watch longer, more often and are more passionate about high-quality content.  We are excited to work with GGV Capital and our existing investors to expand our global footprint and continue to deliver innovative technology that helps media companies and consumers alike transition to the new era of online video—the video Internet."

About GGV Capital

GGV Capital, formerly Granite Global Ventures, is an expansion stage venture capital firm focused on the United States and Asia. GGV Capital manages more than $1 billion from its offices in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore. The firm invests across a range of sectors in information technology, services and healthcare, as well as the consumer growth sector in China. Representative investments include Alibaba, AAC Acoustic, AthenaHealth, HiSoft, QuinStreet, Pandora, SuccessFactors, Tudou and XenoPort.  For more information, visit www.ggvc.com.

About Foundation Capital

Founded in 1995, Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm committed to supporting entrepreneurs and their companies, targeting innovative opportunities in cleantech, consumer Internet and infrastructure; telecommunications and networking; and enterprise software and on demand services. Foundation Capital funds total more than $2.4 billion. For more information, visit www.foundationcapital.com.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $11 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. Since the firm's founding in 1978, NEA's experienced management team has invested in over 650 companies, of which more than 165 have gone public and more than 265 have been acquired. In the U.S., NEA has two offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and one in Menlo Park, California. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

About Pelion Venture Partners

Pelion Venture Partners (formerly UV Partners) established in 1986 in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a leading early stage private equity investment group. Pelion helps entrepreneurs develop early-stage concepts into tomorrow's industry-leading Information Technology and Life Science companies. The partners possess diverse but highly complementary industry and investment backgrounds. They share a hands-on approach and work collaboratively on each portfolio company over the life of an investment thereby providing each company with a broad range of resources, experience, and knowledge.  For more information, visit www.pelionvp.com.

About Conviva

Conviva is transforming the online video experience by eliminating the causes of choppy, unpredictable viewing for both live events and on-demand content.  Starting with real-time audience instrumentation, Conviva's intelligent video platform empowers major studios, leading networks, premier sports leagues and top content aggregators by automating both dynamic bit rate adjustment and the management of multiple distribution networks to optimize the experience and cost of large-scale video businesses.  Great content brands rely on Conviva to deliver the best quality video without hurting their profit margins.  For more information on Conviva, please visit www.conviva.com

(1) Cisco Visual Networking Index 2010, February 2010

SOURCE Conviva Inc.