iVAST Captures $25 Million in Financing From SBVC, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Macrovision and Existing
Investors SBVC's Carl Rosendahl and Venture Strategy Partners' David Likins Join iVAST's Board of Directors
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jun 25, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- iVAST, a premier MPEG-4 software platform provider, today announced it has secured $25 million in financing. The investment, led by SBVC (SOFTBANK Venture Capital), also includes two new strategic investors: Sun Microsystems, Inc., a leading provider of hardware, software and services that power the Internet, and Macrovision Corporation, the leading provider of digital rights management and copy protection technologies. They join initial investors BCE Capital, Centennial Ventures, Vanguard Ventures, Venture Strategy Partners and Vulcan Ventures in this third round.
iVAST also announced that SBVC's Principal Managing Director, Carl Rosendahl, and David Likins, a partner at Venture Strategy Partners have joined its board of directors. "iVAST demonstrates a keen understanding of how the digital media market is evolving as well as the expertise to address it with MPEG-4 based software technologies," said Rosendahl, also the founder of Pacific Data Images (PDI) and executive producer of the smash hit film, ANTZ. "They are the right company at the right time, and I am personally looking forward to partnering with them on their success as an active member of their board."
"In these challenging market conditions, having a strong consortium of first-tier investors is a major competitive advantage," said Elliot Broadwin, CEO of iVAST. "With the addition of SBVC, Sun Microsystems and Macrovision to our strong investor base, iVAST has the capital, board leadership and strategic partnerships to lead the MPEG-4 market."
"Support for the MPEG-4 standard is on the rise in the digital video and cable industries," said Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman & CEO of The Carmel Group. "As applications from the broadband and broadcast worlds collide, the new standard provides interactive and multi-device capabilities that uniquely address the needs of content owners and service providers. iVAST will do well in this space if it can establish itself early -- as it seems to be doing -- and help the market take full advantage of the rich, interactive multimedia capabilities of MPEG-4 to deliver home and business applications to PCs and set-top boxes globally."
With its new capital, iVAST will add engineering talent, complete its product development process and intends to take its MPEG-4 software to market at the end of the year. This latest round of financing follows a series of recent strategic partnership announcements with companies such as FOXSports.com, HSI Productions, Mandalay Pictures and Pearson Broadband.
About iVAST's Investors
For more information about iVAST's investors, visit their respective Web sites: BCE Capital (www.bcecapital.com); Centennial Ventures (www.centennial.com); Macrovision Corporation (www.macrovision.com); SBVC (www.sbvc.com); Sun Microsystems, Inc. (www.sun.com); Vanguard Venture Partners (www.vanguardventures.com); Venture Strategy Partners (www.venturestrategy.com); and Vulcan Ventures Inc. (www.paulallen.com).
About iVAST
iVAST, Inc. is a leading developer of digital media creation and delivery software, based on MPEG-4 -- the international standard for the distribution of interactive audio, video, 2D/3D graphics, and animation via broadband and broadcast networks. The iVAST software platform enables content owners and service providers to expand brand reach, derive new revenues, and securely deliver enhanced rich media experiences to a wide range of end-user devices including PCs and set-top boxes. iVAST is headquartered in Santa Clara and offers creative services through its studio in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit www.ivast.com.
Contact:
Austin Communications (for iVAST)
Susan Austin, 408/985-2219
saustin@ivast.com
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