Bangalore based Jivox, the first self-service online video advertising platform for businesses, has announced that it has closed a $10.7 million Series A round of financing led by Opus Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm.  New investor Helion Venture Partners, an India-focused venture fund, also participated in the round, along with Jivox’s existing investors. The funds will be used to continue development of the Jivox online video advertising platform, as well as to expand the company's sales and marketing efforts in both India & in the US.

The company, head-quartered in California, had commenced its Indian operations in March 2008, through a sales & development office in Bangalore. 

Said Naren Nachiappan, Managing Director India, Jivox, “The Jivox online video ad platform enables businesses to harness the power of online video advertising by reducing the cost and complexity of developing and placing online video ads.  Since its launch in March 2008, Jivox has seen broad adoption of its self-service online video ad platform by advertisers in a wide variety of industries, including travel sites, financial and real estate services, matrimonial services, transportation companies and restaurants.  Jivox has also gained significant traction with publishers, who are eager to monetize the content on their sites and tap into a huge pool of smaller advertisers that would otherwise be confined to banner or search ads.  The Jivox Video Network now reaches more than 40 million viewers”.

Jivox was founded in 2007 by Diaz Nesamoney, the visionary entrepreneur behind Informatica (Nasdaq: INFA) and Celequest (acquired in 2007 by Cognos).

“Online video advertising is the fastest growing segment of digital online marketing, but the cost of creating and placing video ads threatened to keep this medium beyond the reach of most businesses.  Jivox makes it easy for both advertisers and publishers to begin taking advantage of online video advertising. The tremendous momentum Jivox has seen since launching just a few months ago demonstrates the strong demand for this type of service,” said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Jivox.  “We’re very pleased to be working with Opus Capital and Helion Venture Partners, both of whom have great track records of backing successful online ventures.”

“Jivox has done an outstanding job proving its concept, gaining a large group of satisfied advertisers and building its network. The traction Jivox has gained in just a few months is a testament to the significant online video ad market opportunity as well as the strength of the Jivox team,” said Ken Elefant, general partner, Opus Capital.

“Jivox has built a solid base of advertisers and publishers in the U.S. as well as in India, where the rapid increase in Internet penetration is further paving the way for innovative technology products and services such as Jivox’s,” said Ashish Gupta, Managing Director, Helion Ventures Pvt. Ltd.  “We look forward to working with Jivox as it accelerates its growth in this market.” 

Sourced From: Pressman India