LongTail Video (www.longtailvideo.com), the leading provider of affordable, self-serve video solutions for web publishers including the popular JW Player, announced today that it has completed a $5 million Series B funding round. The financing, LongTail’s first institutional round, was led by Greycroft Partners and included participation from Cue Ball Capital. The company will use the funding to drive new product development and to expand its sales and marketing efforts.
“We are delighted to be working with the LongTail Video team,” said Ian Sigalow of Greycroft Partners. “LongTail Video has established a fantastic track record of building great products, including the JW Player, that are used by millions of publishers today to deliver video to mobile devices and desktop browsers. What is most impressive is they have accomplished all of this organically, with very little capital invested to date. With this new financing, LongTail will be able to accelerate its product development efforts and further expand its leadership position in online video.”
Since its founding, LongTail Video has focused on providing simple, affordable video solutions so that websites of all sizes can publish and distribute video with ease. As a result of this strategy, the company has established one of the largest global footprints in online video, delivering over three billion streams across over two million sites each month. Led by the popular JW Player, LongTail’s products are used by a diverse group of publishers, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to design agencies to individual developers and bloggers. LongTail augments the JW Player offering with hosted services that include ad delivery, video management, transcoding, streaming, and hosting. The company has been profitable since 2010.
“Video continues to be an incredibly effective way for publishers to engage with their audiences, but it is also a technically complicated medium. Our mission has always been to provide publishers with a solution that eliminates the technology hurdles so they can create high-quality video viewing experiences for their audiences at an affordable price,” said Dave Otten, CEO of LongTail Video. “By partnering with Greycroft, we now have the opportunity to work closely with a proven investor who can help us expand our product offering, develop our technology, and further build on our leadership role in the online video space.”