TODAY’S VENTURES
MetaTV Gets $21 Million in Series D Funding
MetaTV, Mill Valley, Calif., received $21 million in a Series D round of financing. New investor Comcast Corp. and existing investor Cox Communications led the round. Hearst Interactive Media, another new investor, also participated in the round. Other investors in the round include: Atrium Venture Partners, Liberate Technologies, Redpoint Ventures and Rosewood Venture Group. MetaTV said it will use the funding for technology development. The company also announced that Mark Hess, vice president of digital television at Comcast’s cable division, will join the MetaTV board. MetaTV (www.metatv.com) makes software that enables the automation and optimization of interactive-television applications, services and content.
“We have been working closely with MetaTV to develop Cox’s iTV services,” said Dallas Clement, senior vice president of strategy and development for Cox, in a statement.
“Our additional strategic investment reflects how impressed we are with the quality of their products and commitment of their people,” Clement said.
MetaTV co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Lev said the latest investment “clearly demonstrates a strong vote of confidence in both MetaTV and interactive television,” a technology that gets viewers more involved with TV content and advertising using their remote control and software in set-top boxes.
“All of our investors recognize our leadership and our unrivaled ability to help network operators, TV programmers, advertisers and e-businesses rapidly and cost-effectively deploy new, revenue-generating services,” Lev said.
Other repeat investors this time around were Menlo Park firms Redpoint Ventures and Atrium Venture Partners, Rosewood Venture Group of San Francisco, and Liberate Technologies of San Carlos.
Hearst Interactive Media, the tech investment arm of publisher Hearst Corp., also put money into the Mill Valley company for the first time. MetaTV joins Scene7 of Novato among Hearst Interactive’s investments.
The funding is a big gain for the 3-year-old MetaTV, considering the continually cautious sentiment among investors, especially when it comes to technology firms. Venture capital investments fell 11 percent to $5.7 billion in the second quarter of this year – the lowest level since the third quarter of 1998, according to a joint survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Venture Economics and the National Capital Association.
The private iTV firm has raised $62 million in venture capital funds since it began in 1999. It plans to use the $21 million to further the deployment efforts of its flagship MetaTV Platform, formerly known as the Universal Portal Platform, in addition to building strategic sales initiatives and pursuing broader international distribution opportunities, Lev said.
“MetaTV believes the widespread roll out of iTV is right on schedule, and our recent funding reinforces this positive outlook for interactive television, as well as for MetaTV,” he said.
Cable giant Comcast Corp. of Philadelphia and Atlanta-based Cox communications were the lead investors in the firm’s fourth round of funding. Last year, Cox and Comcast-affiliated venture fund Comcast Interactive Capital were among a group that gave $28 million.