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eCommerce - Sunday, October 30, 2005

Navio - Profile

HQ: Cupertino, CA

Founded: 2002

Management: Stefan Roever is President and CEO. He previously co-founded and was CEO of Brokat Technologies, which went public in 1998 on the German Market and later in 2001, Brokat was dually listed on the NASDAQ.That stock has since been de-listed.

Investors: A company exec announced recently revealed that Navio is poised to close Series B totaling more than $20M. Investors are not known at this point.

Business Model: Navio supplies an ASP platform to record companies, and other media publishers, so they can "sell rights, and not just files." Such rights would offer more flexibility, because listeners could use the right to access the content on multiple platforms, for example, or to download songs again if your media was lost or destroyed. Navio's envisions thousands of music stores on the net, each using Navio to sell music rights. In March 2005, the company acquired DVNO, and has integrated its process for distributing mobile content at the retail point-of-sale.

Navio's Backend - Catalog Creation and Publishing

Fox Music is the first announced user of Navio. It is selling music downloads, ringtones, and graphics. The site gets little traffic and use, but it is a nice proof of concept.

Competitors: We haven't come across another media download ASP. The company's rights management scheme competes conceptually with Snocap, Peer Impact.

Dirt: We like the idea of a music and media eCommerce ASP. We can see country music stores using Navio to power their storefront or an indie movie site selling movie downloads. Its model of selling media rights is bound to come under fire, but if there is one thing we have learned it is that nobody is every completely happy with any download payment scheme. The company has yet to get a number of wins under its belt, but there with $20M in the bank, there will be time enough for that.