“DoubleClick for Web Video” Start-up FreeWheel Raises $12 Million
by Peter Kafka
Posted on April 29, 2009 at 3:01 PM PT
Yes, investors are still betting on Web video. Just not in the way they used to: FreeWheel, one of the buzzier online video start-ups you’ve never heard of, has raised a $12 million C round from Battery Ventures, which had provided financing for the company’s first two rounds, and Foundation Capital.
No word on valuation for the company, or the total amount raised to date. If anyone wants to weigh in, you can reach me at peter@allthingsd.com.
FreeWheel is essentially an online ad video network operating behind the scenes and connecting Web video advertisers and publishers. If that sounds a bit like DoubleClick, the display ad infrastructure company that Google (GOOG) acquired last year, that’s not a coincidence. Co-founders Doug Knopper and Jon Heller are both DoubleClick vets.
FreeWheel won’t disclose most of its customers, but it’s been watched widely by Web video players to see if can make good on its promise to make the fractured market more efficient. That’d be an important problem to solve for the Web video industry, which has yet to deliver on its huge promise.
