Open source video platform vendor Kaltura has raised $25 million, including new investors to fund international expansion after making a quick start in Europe.
Based in New York, Kaltura’s major coup, so far, has been to be chosen by Wikipedia as the platform provider for its HTML5 player as the world’s favorite online encyclopedia finally enters the video age after five years of beta testing. Kaltura has also been adopted by major content providers including Disney and HBO to provide automated centralized video management.
The platform is also suitable for broadcasters, according to Leah Belsky, Kaltura’s VP & General Manager Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“For broadcasters, this is an intermediate stage between building something themselves and buying something proprietary,” said Belsky. “We started with a vision to create an open source platform to enable an ecosystem of developers and of applications so that different clients and partners can use this technology and customize it to different needs.”
Kaltura’s current round of funding was brought forward partly by unexpectedly rapid expansion in Europe where its first office in London opened in May 2012.
“In many ways revenue growth has far exceeded our expectations,” Belsky said.
She attributed the growth to a lower level of sophistication among incumbent content players in Europe, making them more open to Kaltura’s ecosystem. “Whereas in the US we are competing with home built systems, here people are realizing they can save the millions of dollars US companies were spending doing it themselves.”
