Live video streaming became in its own right during the coronavirus pandemic, with services like Zoom, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and many more giving people a way to stay in touch with each other, manage events, and keep working even when the same physical spaces cannot be present together.
Now, a startup called Restream, which has built a platform to help those who want to stream in more than one location at the same time, is announcing a big funding round in the wake of its 300% business boom over the past eight months. The Austin-based startup raised $ 50 million, a Series A co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Insight Partners.
Alex Khuda, CEO and co-founder, told ProWellTech in an interview that Restream has not disclosed its valuation with this round, except to note that it is far above the modest valuation of $ 17.8 million (per pitch book). reached when he announced a seed round in 2018.
The startup started several years earlier and was profitable almost from the start. Khuda said this latest, large round of funding was actually raised not for ongoing operations, but to take the business to newer areas.
Specifically, it will be used to help fuel the launch of Restream Studio, a platform for creators to do more production around their videos: for example, writing captions and lower thirds, adding watermarks, managing chats, and editing and reusing stream extracts. on other channels and analysis management. Think of it as the Hootsuite of video streaming.
It will also go towards expanding with more localized servers in a larger set of markets to manage the content it carries.
Restream today covers around 30 streaming platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube, and also allows people to take videos from platforms like Zoom and re-broadcast them to platforms for a wider audience. It runs on a freemium model, with most customers using the free tier and others paying between $ 19 and $ 299 per month depending on the service level.
The company got its start in the gaming world, but today it also caters to a wider range of creators, musicians, and businesses who use the service to both manage internal and B2B communications, as well as their broader marketing efforts. marketing. Some of the high-profile organizations that have used it include the World Health Organization, which held its One World: Together at Home benefit concert on the platform to support spirits at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and had about 270 million spectators.
In fact, for all the downsides of the pandemic, it was a boost for the streaming industry business, and no less for Restream's business - the company hit 750 million monthly views in July. Other major clients include Dr. Phil, Deepak Chopra, Microsoft, Redhat, SalesForce, and Ubisoft.
And what's particularly interesting is how the company - which has only 45 people - handled all that work remotely: no one is walking into the office at the moment. And I must point out that it looked like Khuda's interview with me was done in a closet (a large closet, I should add).
"We all sleep less," said Khuda, who is originally from Ukraine but now lives in Austin, with a smile. "The whole team works remotely because we want to try to protect everyone. When it comes to technology, our people who are responsible for development operations and reliability have always been remote. "He said the goal is to build technology to automate as much as possible," so they never come back. to the same thing ".
While live-streaming was already shaping up as big business and companies like Vimeo were also offering a path to retransmit, we see more and more companies moving deeper into space to meet today's market demand and opportunities. Just yesterday, we reported how Spotify is also preparing a virtual event streaming service, while a number of other music services are also launching their own live event streaming platforms.
The big question will be whether in the long run we will continue to see a proliferation of content in more places or whether streaming companies, hoping to bring more viewers to their platforms and further differentiate themselves, push for more exclusivity rather than something for everyone to see. everywhere. While this could happen, Khuda said she believes there will always be a market for those who want to be everywhere and that this is ultimately a better business model for most people, not the select few.
"Mixer was an example of where exclusivity was applied, but suddenly the user had to find a new place to broadcast and build audiences," he said, referring to the shutdown of Microsoft's streaming service for gamers. "It's a good lesson not to keep all your eggs in one basket."
But the other big opportunity also lies in the way Restream is expanding into more than just gaming and entertainment.
"Restream's 300% growth since January demonstrates the value of their software for Fortune 500 companies to be able to communicate directly to their audience in today's virtual world," said Teddie Wardi, MD of Insight Partners, in a declaration. "Beginning with the gaming community, Alex and Andrew quickly recognized the potential of Restream's technology to engage audiences in a variety of settings and scale their platform globally. Now, with their suite of streaming tools at the cutting edge like planning, chat and analytics, global brands and content creators are able to seamlessly connect and communicate with their audiences. We are thrilled to partner with Restream in this exciting time as they launch Restream Studio and continue to expand their product offering ".
And while it's not always true that the first promoters are the winners, in the case of Restream it has helped them to carve out a market position that they are able to maintain by continuing to innovate on their technology.
"Long before remote work and life became the norm, Restream's multistreaming platform had become essential for many creators, companies, entertainers, influencers and anyone who needed to broadcast to a large audience through social channels like Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and more, "said Paul Levine, partner of Sapphire Ventures. "In just a few years, co-founders Alex Khuda and Andrew Surzynskyi have created a product that has become a valuable tool for content creators and marketers to maximize audiences for their live videos. Accelerated by COVID, I believe Restream has a significant market opportunity and I am thrilled to collaborate together on the journey that awaits us. "
Both VCs join the board with this round.
