Norwest leads $13M Series C in Elemental Technologies

NVP bets on video delivery over multiple devices, such as iPads, iPhones, smartphones, set-top boxes

The 2012 Olympics will be held this July in London, and apparently, the event will not only showcase the world's most skilled athletes, but the power and diversity of Internet delivery of content over television. As the BBC's director of future media, Ralph Rivera, said in a Financial Times interview, "Our aspiration is that 2012 will do for digital and connected televisions what the [1952 Queen Elizabeth] coronation did for TV.”

Helping to provide the infrastructure for that video delivery is Elemental Technologies, a start-up that's positioned to ride the ongoing Internet video boom, particularly now that it's secured another round of financing. 

Elemental Technologies announced Tuesday that it's raised $13 million in a Series C round of financing, led by Norwest Ventures Partners, and including the participation of existing investors General Catalyst, Voyager Capital and Steamboat Ventures. This brings the total round of financing to $28.6 million, since it was founded in 2006.

Elemental sells an appliance to media companies, such as ABC News, ESPN, HBO and Game Spot, and services providers, such as cable companies, such as Comcast, to deliver video in multiple formats to multiple platforms, such as iPhone, iPad, smartphones, and set-top boxes. Elemental can also deliver video on-demand and live. 

"The company has a very cost-effective solution," said Robert Abbott, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, in an interview with me. "The market for tablets is really exploding, and we're just at the beginning of this market opportunity [of delivering video across multiple mobile devices]."

Abbott wouldn't get into the details of how much a box costs on average, only to say that the savings could be substantial.  

NVP has a rich history in video. NVP was an early investor in Blue Jeans Network, a provider of interoperable video conferencing services, SundaSky, which provides a video solution for companies to communicate with their customers, LifeSize Communications, a provider of high-definition video conferencing, which was bought by Logitech in 2009 for $405 million. NVP was also an investor in Omneon Video Networks, which was bought by Harmonic for $306 million in 2010, Accord Networks, a voice and video company which went public in 2000 and was sold for $339 million to Polycom, which was also backed by NVP.

In addition the financing, Elemental also appointed Kevin O’Hara to Chairman of the Board.  

(Image source: maclife.com)