ViVu raises $3M for interactive video suite

ViVu, provider of a platform for producing and managing webcasts and other interactive videos for enterprises, announced today that it brought in $3 million in a first round of funding led by Inventus Capital Partners, and including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Quest Ventures and well-known entrepreneur Bill Carrico. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company says it plans to use the money to commercialize its video service — which allows users to schedule video events, invite participants, host them in a streamlined interface, and index past events.

ViVu distinguishes itself by syncing with a full range of video recording and streaming products, even smartphones. That way users don’t have to worry about messy downloads or installations in order to connect face-to-face over video. It is also different from its competitors in that it is easily scaled. You could use it to host a private conference call between two people — just like a conversation over Skype or Google Video Chat. Or you could use it to record and broadcast a 200-attendee training session. For example, ViVu will be used to webcast from the Digital Hollywood Fall conference next week, showing speaker presentations in real time.

And like many products already out there, ViVu supplies analytics, allowing users to see how many people watched a particular video and for how long, allowing them to determine how effective it was, and eventually optimize its content.

ViVu provides a suite of publishing tools, giving users the option of embedding video events on web sites, or in emails. It also integrates with other popular Web 2.0 tools to up its interactivity quotient. For instance, during the broadcast of a summit, let’s say, ViVu users could correspond with one another via live video or Twitter. When scheduling a webinar or video event, invitations can be sent that sync with Outlook (with a plug-in) and Google Calendar. All of the material produced and archive with ViVu is stored in the cloud, retrievable from anywhere at any time.

The company makes money by charging subscription fees for its various services. A single user would pay $49 a month for unlimited use, though a 30-day trial is available.

ViVu was founded last year by Sudha Valluru and Siva Kiran. Valluru has more than 20 years of experience in video, telecom and call centers. He claims to have been “architect of the first enterprise-quality IP video streaming server” during the first Internet boom, for Precept, which Cisco bought in 1998. Kiran claims to have been the youngest Java Certified Programmer in the world. He also worked at Alcatel-Lucent and Yahoo Research.

Inventus co-founder Kanwal Rekhi said in a prepared statement, “ViVu’s founding team is what first caught our attention but they sealed the deal by demonstrating a real solution for an existing market need and backing it up with early customer success. ViVu is on the path to redefining the way corporate communications and e-training are conducted today.”

In addition to the firms participating in the recent round of financing, early-stage seed fund Amidzad has also backed the company, as well as angels Jack Lasersohn, general partner at the Vertical Group, and Amarjit Gill, co-founder of fabless semiconductor maker P.A. Semi, which was eventually acquired by Apple.

Here are some screenshots of a typical web conference, and the analytics offerings: