Veebeam, a gadget-and-software combo which transmits video from computers to TVs, says it has raised the first of a two-tranche, $6 million second funding round.
The money was led by Amadeus Capital Partners, Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital and Oak Investment Partners, joined by Bay Partners, Formative Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Vision Capital.
Intel’s participation is interesting, since it is involved in chip work in the fully connected TV space, with partners like Sony (NYSE: SNE), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Logitech.
Right now, most people acquire online video through the small screen (laptop, desktop PC); playing it back on living room TVs is a minority sport. Veebeam’s $99/£99 system sends images from a computer, through a USB dongle, wirelessly to a receiver plugged in to the back of a TV.
Ironically, however, this kind of bridging device may become less necessary as internet-connected TVs proper take hold in the next couple of years and offer internet video direct to the house’s main screen.
Veebeam launched in September, the result of a merger between two ultra wide band communications companies back in 2008 – San Diego-based Staccato Communications and Cambridge, England-based Artimi.
Veebeam already took $20 million in equity funding when it did the merger, and Staccato, since it was founded in 2002, had already taken three previous rounds of venture capital totaling $77.5 million, according to a report at the time.
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