LA-based Viddy steals $6M from Silicon Valley VCs for social video

Social video startup Viddy has raised its first round of institutional funding — a healthy $6 million from Silicon Valley venture firms.

Battery Ventures led the round, which also saw participation from Qualcomm. Outside the Valley, New York’s Greycroft Ventures also joined in the financing.

Viddy, which lets users share 15-second video clips, will use the funding to bring its app to Android tablets and smartphones as well as to the iPad. BlackBerry and Windows Phone apps are also in the works.

Viddy also lets users edit unique audio tracks, visual effects, and transitions into their clips; it bills the app as a sort of Instagram for video. Videos can be shared automatically across most social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The company credits much of its success to celebrity users like Snoop Dogg and Internet savant iJustine.

The concept is similar to that of the recently pivoted social app Color, which lets users upload 30 seconds of video, sans editing, and other micro-video apps we’ve seen come and go over the years.

“We continue to be excited by the growth and engagement of the Viddy community and by the visually entertaining quality of videos created and shared around the world every day,” said Viddy co-founder Brett O’Brien in a release today.

“Given the incredible growth numbers that we have seen, we’re looking forward to making Viddy available on more platforms and to more users globally.”

To date, the startup has taken $8.2 million in funding. Viddy was first launched in April 2011.

Image courtesy of Goodluz, Shutterstock