AgileTV Corp. said it raised $22 million in financing, led by Valence Capital Management LP.
Insight Communications Co. Inc. and Lauder Partners LLC also invested in the firm, which developed voice-activated remote controls and headend software.
AgileTV generated some buzz at the National Show in April with demonstrations of its remotes, which allow users to quickly channel-surf by hitting a button on the remotes and giving commands such as, "Find 24," or, "Scan sports."
Comcast is testing AgileTV's “Promptu” product in its Philadelphia system, and Time Warner Cable is teaming up with Comcast on running consumer research for the trial. Comcast is expected to soon deploy Promptu commercially.
Promptu recognizes 100,000 phrases, and AgileTV said it delivers better than 90% voice-recognition accuracy.
AgileTV also expanded its board, naming Valence CEO James Caccavo and Valence partner Roy Thiele-Sardina directors.
"As cable television continues to add new programming choices and advanced services such as on-demand and DVR [digital-video recorder] functionality, viewers increasingly need a simple way to navigate through hundreds of channels and programs," Insight CEO Michael Willner said in a prepared statement.
"AgileTV's voice-recognition technology offers the industry a cost-effective, easy-to-implement solution that will provide customers with increased value, and it's just plain cool technology," he added.
