Blip.tv: Economic Crisis? What Economic Crisis?
Blip.tv — you know, the place that premiered that new Web-only Michael Moore movie — is defying the economic crisis by coming up with new funding.
The online TV network is announcing a second full round of funding this morning, though oddly not saying how much it amounts to. Bain Capital Ventures is backing the dough. It also funded LinkedIn and LaLa Media (see Duncan’s not-so-favorable review here), among others.
It’s an impressive time to be able to pull that off. Startup after startup is cutting back left and right, as anyone who follows the tech space has seen. Yahoo is expected to announce major layoffs any minute now. So a round of funding, in this climate, seems to be a particularly noteworthy feat.
Along with the money announcement, Blip.tv is touting the fact that its servers saw more than 51 million unique views in September alone — a 250 percent jump from the numbers the same month last year, its execs say.
The new funding marks Blip.tv’s first fresh cash since its inaugural round back in June of last year. Ambient Sound Investments — the guys who founded Skype — put up the money the first time around. Since then, Blip.tv has grown to hosting tens of thousands of shows on not only its own site, but also on third-party sites such as iTunes, AOL Video, and Verizon FiOS.
Blip.tv has been around since May of 2005. It is technically still listed as being in beta.
