PiXPO Takes $6.5M Series A For Broadcast Video Site

Canada’s awash with opportunities—and incentives for the weak of heart.

PiXPO Inc. completed a $6.5 million Series A financing round on the heels of the launch of its broadcast video Web service last week.

Madrona Venture Group led the May round, with Canadian investors GrowthWorks Capital Ltd., Yaletown Venture Partners Inc. and Springbank TechVentures GP Inc. participating. Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group and Jim Charlton of GrowthWorks Capital join PiXPO's board.

PiXPO lets users create free online video broadcast sites and host them from their PCs. Users can also show other digital content, such as audio and images, after downloading the PiXPO client, which creates a personal digital media Web site.

The days of broadcasting to cable public access channels are no more, PiXPO President and Chief Executive Ron Stevens said. The company's software allows users to broadcast video to anyone from their PC. "It's an opportunity to be your own Wayne's World from your basement. Like NBC studios from home."

Vancouver-based PiXPO was founded in late 2003 as How To Share, a peer-to-peer photo sharing Web site, whose service, called PiXPO, was pulled in November because it never quite took off, Stevens said. How To Share's photo sharing service is no longer sold. "It is a crowded space," Stevens said, regarding the photo sharing market. Angel investors had funded the company.

PiXPO went into stealth mode in November after Stevens took the company's helm, fashioning the new service and assuming a different name for the company. Prior to the Series A, the company took $500,000 in a GrowthWorks bridge loan and capital from Stevens.

Stevens founded venture-backed Digital 5 Inc., which just announced its future acquisition by fellow entertainment networking software company Mediabolic Inc. Digital 5 has received nearly $20 million to date from investors including Intel Capital, 3i Group PLC, SpaceVest Capital, the venture arm of Royal Philips Electronics NV, Texas Instruments Inc., D&M Holdings Inc., AsiaTech Management LLC, Spinnaker Ventures and Aurora Ventures. Stevens wasn't involved in the exit because he left Digital 5 in 2004 to become an entrepreneur in residence at Yaletown Venture Partners.

Stevens expects the types of videos posted on the site to be wide-ranging, including those of the "American Idol" type, and celebration videos, learning and training, and advertising and sales. Video broadcasters can be expelled for inappropriate or questionable video broadcasting.

Starting in the fourth quarter, PiXPO will start sharing revenue with users that sell goods or services on their PiXPO Web site. The company will also charge for a professional version of its service. Separately, professional advertisers may also show ads within videos based on a viewer's location and the video's content. For example, viewers watching a boat video would see ads for boats in their region.

With the new capital, PiXPO will add additional features to its service, including a mobile and set top box version by the end of the year, Stevens said.

Almost 100,000 users pre-registered to receive the software, and many thousands of versions of the client have been downloaded so far, Stevens said.