Qwilt, a company that specializes in online video delivery and transparent caching solutions, can count another big name among its funders: Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). The 102-year-old firm, which has backed multiple successful tech ventures including Skype, Yelp and LinkedIn, led a $16 million Series C funding round for Qwilt, a three-year-old start-up based in Redwood Shores, Calif.
The new investment brings Qwilt’s backing to $40 million and includes contributions from previous funders, Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Marker LLC.
Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt, said the latest investment validated Qwilt’s approach and momentum. “Bessemer’s support will accelerate our growth and success, as we continue to enhance our product and scale our operations to better serve our growing global customer base,” he said.
For many carriers facing the exploding popularity of streaming video and other over the top (OTT) services, the need for speed—and capacity—has never been greater. Operators have to find a way to improve the consumer’s quality of experience, increase network capacity and monetize OTT video traffic. Qwilt claims its video delivery technology addresses these difficult problems—at a fraction of the cost of traditional network expansion.
The new funding will be used to grow the company’s international sales and engineering teams for its flagship product, the Qwilt QB-Series Video Fabric Controller. The solution monitors video traffic on operator networks, identifies popular titles and then stores them locally, near where the user is actually viewing the video. This reduces network traffic and congestion and helps create a higher quality viewing experience for users.
“This smart approach to a tough problem is what attracted Bessemer, and frankly, it’s why [Qwilt] can point to high rates of adoption among operators as well,” said Bob Goodman, a BVP partner.
Qwilt was founded in 2010 by former Cisco and Juniper executives. It received initial rounds of funding totaling $24 million in 2011. BVP manages $4 billion in funds; more than 100 companies it has supported in the past have gone public.
