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Video - Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Web Video Funding Year Ender: UStream, KushTV, Seesmic

Founded in July 2006 and based in Palo Alto, Ustream.TV is a microbroadcasting platform that enables users who need a camera and an Internet connection to broadcast live video.

Ustream says that it has completed a $2M angel round and that General Wesley Clark has joined its board. Ustream was founded by two West Point graduates. The round was led by Western Technology Investors and the Band of Angels.

Ustream recently indicated that it would target the military overseas who would want to send video messages back home. They have also worked with politicians, including several US presidential candidates, who have used Ustream.

View this interview with Ustream's CTO with Chris Pirillo
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Today ContraFilm Pictures said it was investing an undisclosed amount of money in Santa Monica-based KushTV. KushTV is high def video network for online, mobile and digital cable. Users can also syndicate their original video material through MySpace and other socnets.

KushTV says its series of short clips from a tour by the rock band Korn is its most popular deal so far and has served 40M views. Much of its content appears to be of the Spring Break and Tila Tequila variety.

Contrafilm will use KushTV as an incubator that will allow it to experiment with talent and scripts in shorts and features that could potentially be extended into TV and cinema.

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One of the worst kept secrets around has been the funding of Seesmic. That's because the startup's founder Loic LeMoir has been emulating Justin.tv and filming his business days. BusinessWeek provides the latest update on the funding with its report that in the next few weeks Seemic expects to finalize and announce agreements for more than $5M in financing from investors including Steve Case, Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and top godfather Ron Conway.

Seesmic is another video sharing platform that competes with Kyte.tv, Justin.tv, Operator11, etc. What the firm has going for it is that its founder is a great promoter who has made himself a star particularly in Europe.

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