Vidyo Bags $15M, Spews News

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Vidyo®, Inc., the global leader in personal telepresence, today announced a $15 million third round of financing, bringing the total amount of capital raised by the company to $38 million since its inception in 2005. Personal telepresence enables anyone, anywhere and at any time to communicate in multi-party conferences with natural HD video quality over the Internet and general-purpose IP networks. The additional funding enables Vidyo to expand its sales, marketing and product development efforts as well as better support its growing customer base and partners.

In addition to this news, Vidyo has also issued two other announcements today: Vidyo Licenses H.264/SVC Technology to Telepresence Leader Teliris and Vidyo Chosen By Global Leader in Risk Management Solutions.

Menlo Ventures led the latest round, and was joined by all existing investors: Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures. With this new round, Menlo Ventures' Managing Director, Doug Carlisle, joins the Vidyo Board.

"We are excited that Menlo Ventures is leading our third financing round. Last year they made a small initial investment that provided them the ability to evaluate Vidyo's potential and performance and they liked what they saw," said Ofer Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer of Vidyo. "The fact that we are able to raise a substantial amount of funding from such top tier investors during this global economic downturn, speaks volumes about the strength of our technology and products in the video conferencing market," Shapiro added.

In a separate release:

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Vidyo®, Inc., the first company to deliver video conferencing solutions and technology built upon the most recent video compression standard -- H.264/SVC, today announced that Teliris®, a leading provider of immersive telepresence solutions, has licensed VidyoTechnology(TM) to enhance select elements of its product portfolio.

In addition to this news, Vidyo has also issued two other announcements today: Vidyo Secures $15 Million to Expand Leadership and Vidyo Chosen By Global Leader in Risk Management Solutions.

VidyoTechnology enables Teliris to be among the first companies to deliver telepresence using the latest video standard -- H.264/SVC; a significant advancement over older video technologies that are used by many other telepresence providers.

"We welcome Vidyo into our family of strong and innovative partners," said Marc Trachtenberg, Teliris CEO and co-founder, "and look forward to a long relationship of leveraging Vidyo technology."

In a separate release:

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Vidyo®, Inc., the first company to deliver personal telepresence, today announced that Kamakura Corporation, a leading provider of risk management information, processing and software, selected VidyoConferencing(TM) as a key component of the company's communications with its global clients. Founded in 1990, Kamakura has been a provider of daily default probabilities and default correlations for listed companies since November 2002.

In addition to this news, Vidyo has also issued two other announcements today: Vidyo Secures $15 Million to Expand Leadership in Personal Telepresence Market and Vidyo Licenses H.264/SVC Technology to Telepresence Leader Teliris.

Since on-going personal contact with its customers is critical to Kamakura's business, the company needed to identify a way to maintain regular, face-to-face communications with its clients that didn't require constant travel and time expenditures. Although they had tested other video conferencing options, none had met their expectations and requirements. Once they discovered Vidyo's HD desktop personal telepresence system, they began to implement VidyoConferencing for use throughout their enterprise.

"Our clients are amazed by the simplicity and high quality of VidyoConferencing," said Mariusz Tyminski, Senior Vice President, Kamakura Corporation. "Prior to Vidyo, we were not able to engage in video calls with multiple participants over the Internet. It was impossible to have any kind of natural communication. VidyoConferencing gave us the ability to offer clear, HD video communications to our clients via an IP network, thereby cutting costs on travel and International calls, not to mention savings of time and energy."

Vidyo Inc.