Client News
Blackwave
Boston Herald: December 3, 2007
Acton start-up chases next wave in Internet video
By Jay Fitzgerald
Acton's Acinion Inc. is rolling out a new company name, along with a product that it says will dramatically improve the efficiency of Internet video storage and delivery for media companies and other firms.
The two-year-old Acinion, which as of today will be called Blackwave Inc., said it recently received a second round of $16 million in venture funding.
And the now-renamed Blackwave is planning to use those funds to double the size of its current 35-person work force within the next six months as it prepares to market its new Internet video system in the first quarter of 2008.
"The market is massive," said Robert Rizika, chief executive of Blackwave, noting the booming demand for online videos of all kinds.
Blackwave will sell its combination of hardware and software technologies to firms that store and stream massive amounts of video over the Internet - whether they're television stations, newspapers, movie distributors or companies that provide Internet services for firms.
To store and deliver "content rich" video over the Internet takes massive amounts of equipment and money, said Rizika.
Those who want to store and deliver video content also usually have to deal with two or three different companies in order to serve their Internet consumers, he said.
But Blackwave says it's developed an "all-in-one" system that Rizika says increases video delivery efficiency by a factor of 10 while dramatically reducing costs for companies.
David Aronoff, a general partner at IDG Ventures Boston, one of Blackwave's lead investors, said YouTube, iTunes and other sites have already shown how big and popular the digital-media business has become.
But IDG Ventures Boston didn't want to get into the content side of the Internet business, he said.
Instead, it's targeting the storage and delivery side of the digital-media equation with its investment in Blackwave, which Aronoff said is in a position to help content companies trying to get online videos to their consumers.
By Jay Fitzgerald bostonherald.com
