Internet television infrastructure provider Avail Media Inc. landed $8 million in follow-on funding from new investor Valhalla Partners of Vienna, Va., and existing investors to close a $25 million Series B round of financing.
The deal comes on top of $17 million the company closed in May from Columbia Capital of Alexandria, Va., Novak Biddle Venture Partners of Bethesda, Md., and Seattle-based Pioneer Ventures.
The deal, along with $5 million in debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank and an unnamed strategic partner, brings total funding in the 10-month-old company to $30 million.
The funding will allow the company to expand marketing of video-on-demand and other Internet-protocol-TV content and services to telecommunications carriers. Founder and CEO Ramu Potarazu expects the capital to be sufficient to take the company to profitability in 2009.
"This gives us more money for marketing and resources to assist carriers in implementing services," Potarazu said. "Valhalla brings additional industry and operating experience as well as critical resources within their team which will be valuable during this growth phase."
Avail was formed in January through a merger of Auroras Entertainment and Broadstream Communications, and the company has been selling services to carriers since May. Potarazu said the company currently has 26 customers of its fully integrated services to allow carriers to offer linear programming from major content providers as well as video-on--demand services.
