Inovia Capital is Proud to Announce Our Investment in Vidyard
Inovia Capital is proud to announce our investment in Vidyard (www.vidyard.com). Vidyard is an online video platform for businesses that offers unique YouTube integration, instant start technology, customized player skins, audience engagement metrics, integrated call to action, easy chaptering, real time analytics and full compatibility across browsers/devices. Vidyard’s unique value proposition makes it a no brainer for anyone seeking to host, distribute and properly leverage professional online video content.
Online video is already a very complex and competitive arena, as evidenced by the map below:
Competition is of course a natural occurrence in all sectors that have dynamic large-scale changes occurring within them that present opportunities for start-ups to become significant category leaders. At Inovia Capital, we welcome the opportunity to invest in such sectors, as evidenced by our existing portfolio strategy in AdTech, eCommerce, Mobile Gaming, etc. We believe that the key to successfully emerging from this competitive noise and establishing yourself as an outperformer begins at the top of your organization. Our job is to find those exceptional entrepreneurial teams that demonstrate a strong vision for the future and the ability to execute in these crowded markets. Michael Litt (CEO of Vidyard), Devon Galloway (COO) and Edward Wu (CTO) are a fine example of what this means in practice.
Michael and his team first came to our attention in March of this year, courtesy of the fine folks at UW Velocity and Communitech in Waterloo. Over the last 8 months, we have watched the team as they completely redesigned their platform, redefined their target market, and relocated to Y Combinator in Mountain View, CA. Throughout this entire process, we were constantly amazed by the ability of the leadership team to adjust, focus, and execute regardless of the challenges thrown their way. Their enthusiasm and self-belief was infectious, and further reinforced our notion that this was a team capable of disrupting what was a fundamentally broken market segment.
Professional video platforms have long floundered as a poor cousin to YouTube, burdened by high costs, high complexity, limited reach and little audience engagement. Vidyard’s founding team had seen this first hand, having worked for years with video production companies that were constantly scrambling in earnest for an appropriate platform for post-production streaming/management. With the firm belief that the customer is the best product manager, every piece of Vidyard has been built with the user in mind.
This product-centric focus, combined with the relentless hustle of the founding team, is a winning recipe for all involved. We are all excited about the chance to work alongside an absolutely top notch group of co-investors (SoftTech VC, SV Angel, Andreesen Horowitz, Dennis Kavelman, Jawed Karim, Yuri Milner, Paul Bucheit and Vivi Nevo) in giving Vidyard’s leadership team the resources necessary to now execute its vision on a grander scale. Congratulations to Michael, Devon, Edward and the rest of the team on the tremendous progress they’ve made to date, and the roadmap they’ve now laid for future success.
