Mountain View, Calif. (PRWEB) January 25, 2012
Skyfire Labs, a leader in mobile video optimization and cloud solutions for mobility, today announced it has raised $ 8 million in its Series C financing. Verizon Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc. participated in the round, alongside current investors Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Verizons investment was arranged by Verizon Ventures, which seeks promising entrepreneurial companies that complement Verizon networks and service platforms. Skyfire will use the funds to meet the demands of its growing list of wireless operator customers through increased engineering, sales and support resources, and also to expand into European and Asian markets.
“Wireless operators around the world are facing an explosion in mobile data on their networks, driven largely by mobile video, said Andrew Verhalen, general partner at Matrix Partners. Skyfire is well positioned with solutions for operators that can expand network capacity by over 25 percent, as well as generate incremental revenue.
Skyfire is poised to expand globally in 2012 after winning deployments with two tier-one operators in North America, and adding world-class international executive talent, added Larry Orr, general partner at Trinity Ventures.
Concurrent with this latest financing, Skyfire has announced a new European footprint. John Rintoul has been named vice president of sales for Skyfires newly-opened EMEA office, based in London. Rintoul previously led sales with the Vodafone account for Ciscos Mobile Internet Technology Group, and prior to that, was a sales executive at Starent Networks, Juniper Networks, and Kagoor Networks. Skyfire also announces Scott Boehmer has been named vice president of sales for Americas. Boehmer previously was vice president of sales for SEVEN networks, and a product executive at Sprint. Both regional leads will now report to Skyfires SVP Global Sales, Jason Guesman.
Skyfires Rocket Optimizer product is delivering an average of 60 percent savings for operators on video bandwidth, said Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. We welcome the participation of Verizon, which is renowned for its network planning sophistication.
Rocket Optimizer 2.0, the latest iteration of Skyfires powerful carrier-grade network video and data optimization platform, was launched in October 2011. With mobile video demand expected to rise steeply over the next three years, Rocket 2.0 aims to help carriers solve capacity issues linked to the rapid rise of mobile video streaming. The solution offers real-time optimization of mobile video to enable smoother streaming, and can be applied to specific cell towers or backhaul regions as soon as congestion is detected. Rocket Optimizer 2.0 also offers the broadest support for video formats, including the worlds first instant MP4 optimization (which comprises more than 50 percent of todays mobile video, including most HTML5 and iOS video). By leveraging cloud computing power, Skyfires solution is highly cost effective to scale on both 3G and 4G LTE networks.
Full details about the Rocket 2.0 platform can be found here: http://www.skyfire.com/en/for-operators
Skyfire also offers the Rocket Toolbar product line, a fully customizable web-based operator portal embedded in the default browser of new smartphones. The Rocket Toolbar adds value for users on every page of the Internet by making browsing more social, facilitating app discovery, m-commerce, and quick access to news updates. The Rocket Toolbar has been selected by a tier one North American carrier for upcoming deployment, and is in numerous trials across the U.S. and Europe.
Full details about the Rocket Toolbar platform can be found here: http://www.skyfire.com/en/for-operators/rocket-toolbar
Skyfire will continue to maintain its consumer app business as a showcase and laboratory for its technology. Skyfire apps across Apple iOS
