Elemental Technologies secures $14.5 (£9.3m) in new financing

At the close of another successful year, Elemental Technologies has confirmed that it has secured $14.5 (£9.3)  million series D financing led by Telstra, Ausralia’s largest telecommunications and information services company.

Telstra is joined in the round by broadcaster Sky and existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Voyager Capital. Elemental will use the funds to accelerate worldwide growth and expand its suite of software-defined video (SDV) solutions to support the whole of the IP video delivery chain.

Telstra is Australia’s leading mobile services provider and is committed to advancing mobile networks to manage the future wireless data needs of its customers. Most recently, Telstra has begun the deployment of 4G services on new 700MHz spectrum, in addition to the wide scale introduction of LTE Advanced technology to deliver ultra-fast mobile data speeds. The telco plans to leverage the entire Elemental product line, with a specific focus on Elemental Delta for its next-generation content delivery services.

Elemental Delta combines just-in-time (JIT) packaging, origin services, intelligent caching, dynamic ad insertion and replacement, and end-to-end encrypted content protection functions in a single solution.

“This investment round led by Telstra, combined with the funding participation by Sky and our accelerated growth to more than 600 customers, illustrates the momentum behind our vision for software-defined video,” said Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder, Elemental. “We are thrilled to partner with Telstra and Sky, two of the most technologically advanced operators on the planet. Elemental’s SDV platform combined with Telstra’s world-class wired and mobile networks will set the standard for a new generation of flexible and scalable video services.”

“This investment builds on Sky’s existing commercial relationship with Elemental and our leading position in internet-delivered video, and enables Sky to tap into the company’s experience and expertise in this area,” said Emma Lloyd, director of corporate development and startup investments for Sky.