Traditional technology investors and entrepreneurs can sometimes get a
little snippy about all the attention new media and Web 2.0 deals get these days, but the fact that Diaz Nesamoney recognized more
than two years ago where the market would be today is a good
indication that there may be something to all this after all.
Nesamoney had scored big with a pair of decidedly straight up
enterprise software companies in Celequest Corp. and Informatica Inc.,
delivering strong returns for old school venture capital firm Weiss
Peck & Greer and its successor Lightspeed Venture Partners. But
when he sat down in early 2006 to plot his next move with those same
investors, now operating as Opus Capital, the conversation quickly
turned to video and the massive opportunities arising in new consumer
markets. Leaving behind the dry, but lucrative, enterprise business
intelligence arena where both his previous startups had prospered,
Nesamoney positioned
Jivox Inc.
as a platform to provide video services to advertisers and as a network
to deliver ads to the exploding audience of online video viewers.
Nesamoney provided most of the runway money for Jivox himself,
keeping costs low by conducting much of its development in India while
also targeting the market there. He brought Opus in for the company's
first institutional investment in a $2.7 million seed round closed in
March. Now, with just the beginnings of a commercial launch in the U.S.
and a little more maturity in India, Jivox has raised a Series A round
of $10.7 million and added Indian venture capital firm Helion Ventures
Pvt. Ltd. as an investor.
With the confidence one might expect from a two-time winner, Opus
general partner Ken Elefant predicts that money will likely establish
Jivox as a leader in online video advertising before the company
returns to U.S. investors for an expansion round whether it needs it or
not.
-- Clifford Carlsen
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