Overlay.TV receives $4.6M Series A financing for online video startup

By Dave Forde on January 16th, 2008

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Ottawa-based Overlay.TV, a media company that provides a video-advertising platform enabling users to lay contextual information directly onto video content announced late yesterday they have completed a Series A round of financing for $4.6 million from Celtic House Venture Partners, EdgeStone Capital Partners and Tech Capital. The platform allows for interaction with viewers and content owners and distributors to monetize their video assets.
As videos are being displayed, the viewer has the option to able to opt-in to receive “overlays” which provide contextual information about the content being viewed. Overlay refers to the sites technology capability that allows a view to viewer to click on the image embedded in the video, and take any number of desired actions that are directly associated with the context of the image being viewed. The overlays can be used on in area such as external web pages, ecommerce stores, blogs or other social networks. Now content creators have an opportunity to offer a new form of advertising which is very measurable without additional video production costs and users avoid having to sift through pre-rolls, post-rolls, or banners

“The huge uptake of online video, both professional and user-generated, has created phenomenal opportunities for advertisers and content owners seeking to monetize their assets and reach. However, the fundamental challenge of delivering the right message at the right time still exists,” said Rob Lane, President/CEO of Overlay.TV. “Some interesting attempts to infer video context have started to emerge, but none have proven to be very effective. Empowering users to determine context explicitly and giving them the tools to create their own interactions and ads are what Overlay.TV delivers. We have enabled product placement for the masses and have provided viewers with a simple way to buy what they see in online video.”

The company will be previewing the new service on February 14th at www.overlay.tv