The cloud video-infrastructure firm Amagi snapped up the data-analytics startup Streamwise in a bid to boost its appeal to free ad-supported streaming TV services (FASTs).
New York-based Amagi announced the acquisition Monday of Los Angeles-based Streamwise, which describes itself as an “all-in-one data platform for content distributors.” The announcement did not reveal terms of the deal.
“What content brands need now more than ever is information at their fingertips,” stated Amagi CEO and co-founder Baskar Subramanian. “The genius of Streamwise’s data platform lies in its simplicity and accessibility, making it an excellent value addition to Amagi’s SSAI-based ad offerings.”
Streamwise CEO Doug Shineman, set to lead business development for Amagi’s new analytics operation, chimed in: “Our combined offering will help content distributors make smart decisions and scale their business in the streaming economy by saving content, sales, marketing, and finance executives from repetitive, manual and error-prone processes.”
Founded in 2008, Amagi has had a busy 2022, with just its last six months featuring announcements of deals with such FAST operators as Crackle Plus and Vidaa. A $95 million funding round in March from the venture-capital firms Accel, Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures pushed Amagi’s valuation past the billion-dollar unicorn mark, followed by a $100 million investment in November from General Atlantic that raised its value to $1.4 billion.
“Essentially it’s a business problem that we have to solve, it’s not a technical problem,” Amagi co-founder and chief revenue officer Srinivasan KA told Fierce Video in September. He cited such issues as content that lacks obvious ad breaks and needs localized captioning.
In words that sound like what you might expect from an executive shopping for a video data-analytics firm, KA noted then how much data is available on FAST viewers and how quickly companies can act on it: “One good thing about FAST and connected TV is I get real-time data on every viewer.”