Ooyala, a leading web video services provider, has raised $43 million form Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, the company said Wednesday. Ooyala provides the platform powering web video for ESPN, Bloomberg, Comedy Central, Univision and many others.
Ooyala is not as sexy as any of those companies, because it isn’t creating the content itself. Yet as more and more people watch news, TV shows and other video online, Ooyala is a key chain in the infrastructure.
It has already raised $79, and it will use this money to improve its platform, upgrade its analytics and expand even further.
“Telstra’s recent investment is a reflection of the massive opportunity they see in the market, and is a great validation of our business model, our performance over the past year and a half, and our team,” Ooyala CEO Jay Fulcher said in statement. “Its investment will help accelerate our pace of innovation and technology adoption around the world as more broadcasters standardize on our streaming and analytics technology as a means of maximizing their video revenue.”
Telestra CEO Rick Ellis pointed to research showing video consumption will account for as much as 90 percent of consumer web traffic by 2017 – and two-thirds of mobile data traffic.
The company is betting Ooyala’s platform and analytics will have a toehold in a lot of that traffic.
