Qwilt has raised $24 million in two rounds from some of the same investors who funded Netflix — investors who understand the demands that video delivery puts on carriers, and see the opportunity for Qwilt to help solve that problem. “So much of the buzz about Internet video today is on the consumer side, around the incredible growth of services like Netflix and Hulu,” said Tom Dyal, a partner at Redpoint Ventures who is a member of Qwilt’s board. “But few people are talking about the enormous strain all this new content is putting on Internet providers – the companies forced to carry all this video through their overburdened pipes.” Redpoint partners were early investors in Netflix. Redpoint joins Accel Partners and Singapore-based Crescent Point Group in this initial funding of Qwilt. One of the partners at Accel is Rob Glaser, founder of online video pioneer RealNetworks. Former Accel partner Peter Wagner is a member of Qwilt’s board.
Qwilt was founded last year and is led by a team of former Cisco executives. The company’s goal is provide a solution that will ease the burden on carriers by identifying, monitoring, storing and delivering Internet video through one platform. Competitors include thePlatform and Elemental Technologies.
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Qwilt’s solution is a network appliance that uses flash memory to store content. Qwilt’s software determines what video content is popular in a given area, then stores that content on a nearby appliance so that it does not have to be downloaded repeatedly from a central server.
Qwilt has operations in California, Israel, Europe and Latin America, and is currently hiring in most of these locations.