CiiNOW, a leading cloud compute platform developer, today announced it has raised $13 million in Series-A funding from Foundation Capital, Alcatel-Lucent and a third strategic investor. Founded by Internet and graphics industry veterans, CiiNOW (pronounced see-now) is positioned to change the way cloud infrastructure is built and how applications are developed and delivered across a wide variety of consumer devices.
“We raised an aggressive round of funding to accelerate hiring, engineering and partnership development to meet customer demand,” said Ron Haberman, CEO of CiiNOW, Inc., and a 15-year veteran of Internet services. “We are also discussing strategic investments with several partners as we build out the ecosystem our next-generation real time cloud compute platform.”
The delivery of visually-rich applications using the real-time cloud is gaining rapid support from publishers, retailers and carriers, and the CiiNOW platform complements existing native and browser based solutions by optimizing delivery to any connected device.
The CiiNOW platform offers a flexible business model whereby asset sales, rentals or monthly subscriptions can be offered by targeting services across all subscriber PCs, mobile, and tablet devices, as well as any access technology.
“We have been particularly impressed with CiiNOW’s patented technology and believe the company’s next-generation platform facilitates the real-time cloud, and will change the way consumers interact with and purchase content across multiple devices,” said Ashmeet Sidana, general partner at Foundation Capital and a member of CiiNOW’s board of directors.
Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP division, founder of TiMetra Networks and a member of CiiNOW’s Board of Directors said: “In a global communications industry impacted by a growing number of connected devices, consumers expect immediate and constant connectivity to personalized services and applications. The CiiNOW solution can provide service providers the opportunity to build infrastructure and retail offerings for next generation cloud services.”
CiiNOW is a white label cloud platform that enables game publishers, retailers and carriers to tap into the lucrative $60 billion gaming market as it rapidly transitions from physical media formats to digital distribution. The company’s HybridGFX technology makes use of the capabilities of the client devices (PC, STB and tablets/phones) and transmits compressed graphics commands with overlaid video thereby reducing required bandwidth while increasing image fidelity and minimizing datacenter costs.