Wochit, a startup that curates, licenses and syndicates video news footage for a variety of Web publishers, has closed a $4.75 million A round from Redpoint Ventures, Cedar Fund and Greycroft Partners.
The company, founded in 2012, said it will use the funds to “to accelerate go-to-market efforts, including new initiatives with its customers on producing, syndicating and monetizing videos about any topic as news happens.”
Wochit produces an average of 458 news videos a day that partners can select and integrate based on which ones match topics of interest for their particular audiences. Wochit’s customer targets include Web sites, mobile apps, news organizations, blogs and other types of electronic publishers. The idea behind the model is to enable those groups to gain access to an array of timely news video without the high licensing and production costs.
Grab Media, OneScreen and Rightster are among its early partners. Wochit also operates a YouTube channel for general breaking news.
Company CEO and co-founder Dror Ginzberg, late of PicApp, Phoenix Technologies and Comverse, told TechCrunch that about 95% of Wochit’s news video gathering process is automated.
The startup has some cable technology in its DNA. Ran Oz, a co-founder and the ex-CTO of switched digital video (SDV) pioneer and edge QAM maker BigBand Networks, is also a co-founder of Wochit and serves as its CTO. Redpoint and Cedar Fund previously worked with Oz on BigBand, which went public in 2007 and was sold to Arris for $53 million in 2011.
Wochit is based in New York with offices in Tel Aviv.
