Digital content licensing technology developer ImageSpan LLC won key strategic support with Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG, stepping up to lead an $11 million second round as it launches new partnerships and helps customers cope with the complex intellectual property landscape posed by mashups of multiple copyright holders.
Bertelsman joins existing investors Greycroft Partners and Village Ventures; other new investors include the York City Investment Fund, City Lights Capital Management and Ackerley Partners LLC.
ImageSpan has developed software that helps copyright holders define rights and create transactions with licensees online in real time. The company's technology automates manual licensing processes for advertising, content production and content delivery businesses, helping early customers including Omnicom's Zimmerman Partners, Sports Illustrated, Takkle, Dealer.com and Visible World streamline the licensing process. ImageSpan claims its LicenseStream product can lower costs of licensing as much as 90% and accelerate the time to market for all types of digital content including photos, video and illustrations.
While cross-platform licensing of multimedia has become incredibly complex with the addition of new distribution formats in wireless, video games, social media and other emerging platforms, and a whole industry has risen up to handle those complexities, ImageSpan hopes to smoothe the distribution of property that can be monetized easily and requires quick action. The company's system is optimized for transactions that may amount to a few cents, and for media that may only appear for a short time, but that involve such high volume as to require careful accounting. - Clifford Carlsen
See June 17 press release from ImageSpan LLC
See Dec. 15, 2005, story from Corporate Dealmaker
For more, see Newsvine
Continue reading below
