JW Player Takes $20M in Funding, Creating Open Video Ecosystem
JW Player, the company behind the open source video player of the same name, announced that it has taken in $20 million in Series C funding. Greycroft Growth and Greenspring Associates led the round, with participation from Cueball Capital and e.ventures.
The money will go to creating an open video ecosystem, which JW Player describes as a global network of video publishers and viewers all supplying anonymous data. Publishers and advertisers will be able to learn from the ecosystem to drive their initiatives. The results, the company says, will be improved video discovery and monetization.
"At JW Player, we are squarely focused on leveraging our enormous footprint to create what we call the 'open video ecosystem', a network of connected players that provides publishers with unique insights around how people are engaging with video. This new round of financing will help us dramatically accelerate these efforts," explains Dave Otten, CEO and co-founder of JW Player.
The company notes that over 900 million people watch online video with the JW Player each month. It's used on over 2 million sites. The company counts 200 Fortune 1000 companies as customers of its enterprise business.
This summer, JW Player released updates that added Chromecast desktop support and monetization improvements.
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