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Venture Capital News: FlixMaster Secures $1.125M

2013-01-23
BOULDER, CO, Creative platform for Enterprise Online Video, today announced it has secured $1.125 million in additional funding.
FlixMaster, the creative platform for Enterprise Online Video, today announced it has secured $1.125 million in additional funding from a syndicate of investors led by New York-based investment firm Golden Seeds.

The company said the investment would be used principally to expand sales and marketing efforts, particularly in the corporate enterprise markets. The company also announced it was launching new industry modules for its video editing and deployment platform designed for online retailing, corporate customer service and media markets.

FlixMaster is addressing the growing need for more creative uses of video by corporations and media properties alike. To date, Enterprise Video technology has been primarily focused on video distribution and content management, but as those technology challenges fade, creative professionals are looking for platforms that improve content quality and increase viewer engagement.

"The promise of Enterprise Video has been high engagement that converts interaction into action," said Erika Trautman, co-founder and CEO of FlixMaster, a Boulder, CO-based graduate of the prestigious TechStars program. "The problem is, most videos simply transfer a conventional TV-like experience to the web, and even though most viewers go to the video first, they're gone in a matter of seconds."

"Brands need to produce interactive video experiences that draw viewers in and keep them there. And companies need to be able to produce those experiences at scale and at a reasonable cost. That's what FlixMaster offers," she continued.

FlixMaster has enjoyed success in media markets where creativity and innovation is critical, as producers aim to translate the quality of their broadcast shows into dynamic web experiences. The company was recently engaged by HBO to develop an interactive online experience for the newly launched Cinemax series, "Banshee", that incorporates FlixMaster video technology and makes heavy use of the Player API. The online destination, Banshee Origins, provides audiences with an enhanced viewing experience, driven through interaction with the video player itself, and gives them an opportunity to explore the show and interact with its characters and themes. Last summer, FlixMaster's technology powered an acclaimed web experience for the USA Network show, "Covert Affairs."

That kind of viewer investment is exactly what corporate brands are also seeking and why FlixMaster has seen significant interest from major brands that have grown tired of conventional video and want to increase engagement and leverage video as a broader sales tool.

"About a third of all online retailers, for example, have hundreds and sometimes thousands of videos, some of which are productive, many of which are not," said Ms. Trautman. "We're delivering capabilities like clicking on products in a video and dropping them directly into a shopping cart or launching product specifications right from the video."

"The trick is to capture a viewer's interest and get them to act without forcing them to another page. This is a subtle but fundamental shift in presenting video as an active medium vs. a passive experience," she said.

Online retailers constitute about 30 percent of FlixMaster's enterprise overall customers.

About Golden Seeds

Golden Seeds is an investment firm dedicated to delivering above market returns for investors through the empowerment of women entrepreneurs. Its member angel network, consisting of 240 men and women nationwide, is the fourth largest in the US. Golden Seeds Fund II, an investor in PromoJam, closed in December.

About FlixMaster

FlixMaster is the creative platform for online enterprise video. FlixMaster makes online video an interactive experience, allowing creative professionals to produce content at scale that is highly engaging, converts interaction into action and provides significant ROI.

Based in Boulder, CO and a graduate of the highly acclaimed TechStars program, FlixMaster's cloud-based technology enhances enterprise videos with the click-through power of other web experiences and creates viewer-engaging and revenue-producing assets for retailers, technology vendors, media companies and other organizations.
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