Encoding.com raises $1.25 million

SF-based startup encoding an average of 30,000 videos per day, looking to grow further

San Francisco-based Encoding.com, has raised $1.25 million in VC funding.  Metamorphic Ventures led the round and also included angel investors: Patrick Condon, Fred Hamilton, Zelkova Ventures, Dave Morgan, and Allen Morgan.

The startup provides cloud-based video encoding services for video sites, agencies and Web development platforms.  These could be Web operators of either user-generated or premium videos.  The company said it encodes an average of 30,000 videos per day for clients including MTV Networks, WebMD, Nokia, MySpace, Giant Realm, Red Bull and others, and to date has encoded around four million videos with a peak of 100,000 in one weekend.  

The whole idea and solution Encoding.com is trying to offer is to save companies like MTV Networks, the costs of buying expensive hardware/software solutions as well as employees to manage the transcoding process.  Instead, Encoding.com gets this tedious process done as cloud-based service, getting rid of in house encoding times, which can take hours (I've been through it.) 

For example, say MTV wants to get a video distributed across the Web, not only do they need to encode their video for streaming on its own site, it might want to get it on the mass quantity of cell phones out there, which would require encoding the video in a bunch of different formats and sizes to be optimized for that particular cell phone.  For example, the iPhone and Zune both have different size screens, thus each one of those phones would be better off with a video optimized for itself.  Encoding.com sells its services anywhere from $19.99 per month all the way up to a max of $299 per month according to its site.  

The startup said it would use the funds to work on sales, marketing and partnership programs to continue to grow.