Video sharing app Klip bags $8M from Benchmark

The app has been the top ranked social video sharing app since launch in September

Following on the heels of its $2 million Series A round earlier this year, mobile video sharing app Klip announced Friday that it has raised $8 million in a Series B round led by Benchmark Capital, with help from previous investors Matrix Partners and Klip CEO Alain Rossmann.

Since launching in September, Rossmann told me that Klip has been the top ranked app in social video in the App Store, but he said the company is not sharing download numbers yet. 

“The financing will help us drive innovation so we can continue to deliver the experience and features our users love,” said Rossmann.

Designed for shooting and sharing, the app allows users to shoot videos from their phone and instantly share with friends in their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or email circle.  By shooting a video or selecting one from your camera roll, you can select which social networks you want to post the video to and share with one tap.

You can also search videos based on keywords and go beyond your own social circle to follow other Klip users who share your interests.  The app is something of a video-sharing network in itself, akin to Instagram, in which you can integrate your existing social networks while also connecting with and following other users.  You can also go beyond viewing and sharing videos to actually liking and commenting on them from within the app.

The app also includes some pretty useful features, such as the ability to fast forward through a video by swiping your finger across it, which takes you frame-by-frame through the video to the spot you want (think of all the times you’ve posted a video or sent a video to friends, telling them “the beginning is boring but it picks up at 1:07 in”).

Following in this vein, you can also preview videos by giving your phone a quick shake, which starts fast forwarding through all the videos in your list. 

And to keep the video running smoothly, Klip measures your bandwidth every four seconds and adjusts accordingly.

In addition to the new capital from this round, Bruce Dunlevie of Benchmark Capital will join Josh Hannah of Matrix Partners and Alain Rossmann on Klip’s board of directors.