Genovation Capital, the VC firm created by former Comcast CTO Dave Fellows and Broadbus ex-execs Jeff Binder and Vin Bisceglia, has invested an undisclosed amount in startup ZeeVee — which is repositioning its Internet TV site, Zinc.TV, as a white-label play for cable operators (see Bullish on IPTV Over Cable).
Littleton, Mass.-based ZeeVee started with an Internet-to-the-TV consumer-oriented product that broadcast video over coax; essentially a miniature cable headend in a box, it’s complex to install and expensive (see ZeeVee: Nifty Idea, But Not EZ). The company then launched a video search engine, Zinc.TV, which claims to have indexed more than 330,000 pieces of video content including nearly 170,000 TV show episodes.
Now ZeeVee is pitching Zinc to cable operators, as a way to build an Internet TV platform that can “find and manage content, program custom user experiences, and deliver it on both Internet-capable devices and traditional MPEG-4 IP set-tops,” according to the company.
“After looking at nearly two dozen Internet TV plays, we decided ZeeVee had developed something really unique,” Binder said in a statement. “The Zinc team has cracked the code on back-end automation that makes it possible to curate literally millions of pieces of content with almost no human intervention…. This is exactly the type of functionality consumers have been craving and that service providers want to provide their customers, across all of their connected devices.”
Other investors in ZeeVee include Alpond Capital LLC and JLL Ventures; the startup declined to disclose how much funding it has raised. ZeeVee also sells the ZvBox system for commercial applications, including as a digital signage application for delivering HD video.
ZeeVee CEO Vic Odryna said the company plans to continue operating Zinc.TV as a user portal for consumers as a source of feedback.
According to ZeeVee, the Zinc.TV platform is currently in trials with services providers and partners in the U.S., Europe and Mexico. The company isn’t naming those partners currently.
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