Streamroot, the native peer-to-peer video streaming technology just announced it has raised $2.5M in seed funding led by Partech Ventures and with the participation of Walnut Venture Associates, Cherrystone Angel Group, Jean-David Blanc and Bpifrance.
The Startups aims to help broadcasters solve one of the biggest challenges they are facing today: a rocketing video traffic, which causes them two main problems. Bandwidth is their highest operating cost, yet, investing in the most robust (and expensive) infrastructure won’t avoid video buffering and poor user experience during peak viewing times. The recurrent failures of the system shed light on the limits of existing client-server infrastructure and highlight the need for new means of delivering content. In this context, Streamroot has created a unique peer-accelerated video streaming solution, harnassing an often untapped piece of the video streaming chain: the device itself.
With peer-to-peer protocols, the system connects the users watching the same stream, allowing them to obtain content from the source that can provide it the fastest, be it the server or another viewer. In this way broadcasters are able to reach their audience in a more efficient way, to ensure a better service and also to multiply the capacity of their servers, finally ripping the benefits of traffic explosion, without investing in additional, highly expensive, infrastructure or compromising on service.
“As video continues to grow, innovative distribution solutions are needed to both help publishers remain profitable and to keep video from ‘breaking’ the internet,” says Jeroen Wijering, creator and co-founder of JW Player, who has followed the company closely from its inception. “Streamroot’s delivery optimization technology is a key piece of that puzzle; they have the industry-leading implementation, as well as a bright, forward-looking team.”
Streamroot is the first and leading plugin-free, peer-accelerated streaming technology leveraging WebRTC. It is designed to integrate seamlessly into broadcasters’ existing video workflow and offer total security. The startup was founded in 2014 by Pierre-Louis Théron (CEO), Axel Delmas (CTO), and Nikolay Rodionov (COO), all engineers from Ecole Centrale Paris, and is a proud alumnus of both Le Camping (before it became NUMA) and Techstars Boston. This $2.5M seed funding will be used to secure its position in the US and in European markets and achieve its multi-device ambition.