Penthera Partners, a New York-based company specializing in technology and rights-management tools for video downloads, has announced a $6 million funding round led by the VC arm of cable giant Liberty Global Ventures.
Penthera’s technology is now widely used by popular OTT operators, who have begun to offer customers the ability to download programming over the last several years. The vendor has also worked with cable clients including Comcast on downloadable TV Everywhere services, although these have yet to widely catch on with customers.
Penthera was co-founded in 2004 by former Nokia executive Adam Berger.
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Penthera licenses Cache&Carry, a video download tool that includes built-in DRM support.
"After vetting available technologies we were impressed with the feature sets included in Penthera's SDK,” said Dan Hennessy, CTO for Liberty Global, in a statement. “Whether it's for viewing video when connectivity is limited, intermittent or expensive, downloading is a feature we know customers want and will value greatly, which is why we decided to invest in the company."
Proceeds from this financing will be used to expand Penthera’s worldwide sales efforts and accelerate the development of new products and enhancements to existing products, company CEO Michael Willner said.