RipCode Secures $10.5 Million in Series B Venture Capital Funding

RipCode Inc. recently announced that it has raised $10.5 million in second-round venture capital financing. The money raised will be used to expand sales, marketing and development efforts for its appliance-based video transcoding solution. ATA Ventures led the series B financing with participation from Hunt Ventures, Vesbridge Partners and El Dorado Ventures. RipCode closed a $7 million, series A financing round in August 2006.

RipCodes patent-pending transcoding appliance rapidly processes multiple video files simultaneously for viewing across a variety of media including PCs, mobile phones and iPods. This consolidated processing enables broadcasters, content syndicators, and user generated video sites to reduce hardware, storage and energy use while offering customers a greater variety of content choices.

RipCodes primary focus over the past 18 months has been on product development and early customer engagement, said RipCode CEO Brendon Mills. “Now, with our second round financing complete, we are positioned to ramp up our sales and marketing operations to address the demand for improved Internet video transcoding capabilities. IDC expects about 24 million US cellular subscribers and customers will be paying for some form of TV/video content and services on their mobile devices by 2010, up from about 7 million this year. This growth presents new revenue opportunities for carriers, handset developers, and content providers. IDC expects mobile commercial video and television content and services to emerge as a key component of U.S. carrier data services.

Hatch Graham, Managing Director for ATA Ventures said, We strongly believe that transcoding is the key to unlocking a new chapter in the evolution of online video content and delivery. RipCodes video processing technology enables the extension of video beyond the PC to any screen, no matter the size – addressing a critical issue facing user-generated content sites, mobile syndicators and content providers. The growth of this market and the strength of the RipCode solution gave us the confidence to recommit beyond our original investment.

We recognize the value of technology that enables and enhances the delivery of Web 2.0 content, said Scott Irwin, General Partner, El Dorado Ventures. Our renewed investment in RipCode underscores our confidence in them, and for what we believe to be a strong demand for a transcoding solution that will deliver the future of video.” More information about RipCodes innovative transcoding solution will be available from their website beginning September 17th.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, RipCode is the first company to address video transcoding as a network appliance.  Designed to process multiple concurrent, parallel transcode paths, RipCode significantly accelerates the re-purposing of mobile TV, social networking video and studio-based productions.  This consolidated, high concurrency processing enables RipCode to lower the physical barriers now restricting content from being viewed on multiple viewing mediums, supplant existing servers and reduce overall hardware, storage, and energy usage.  RipCode products support file-to-file, stream-to-stream and an innovative on-demand transcoding for optimal flexibility in mobile and user generated content applications.  Founded in 2005, RipCode is privately held and backed by leading venture capital firms including Hunt Ventures, Vesbridge Partners, El Dorado Ventures and ATA Ventures.

For more information, please visit www.ripcode.com