Video compression startup Deep Render has received $9m (£7.3m) through a combination of equity and grant funding.
The London-based company is developing file compression technology to free up bandwidth for internet service providers. Deep Render’s software uses machine learning to reduce the size of videos up to “up to 5x smaller”, which the company says it can do without affecting quality.
The investment round was led by IP Group and Pentech Ventures. The equity portion of the Series A round accounted for $6.3m (£5.1m), while a European Innovation Council grant made up the remaining $2.7m (£2.2m).
Arsalan Zafar, founder and CTO of Deep Render, said: “If something doesn’t change soon, the free and open web as we know it will cease to exist.”
“The impossibility of matching data growth and demand to infrastructure expansion is a ticking time bomb. It’s a threat for big tech companies whose business models rely on sustained content delivery to users.”
It’s not just a “threat” for big tech, added Zafar, but for the government spending taxpayers’ money on network upgrades, consumers potentially encountering poor service or higher cost, and the planet with streaming-related emissions.
According to the London-based company, its software can be applied to any video such as video calls, cloud gaming and VR.
“It’s become almost cliched for tech brands to describe themselves as disruptive and revolutionary, but Chri, Arsalan and the team at Deep Render certainly buck this trend,” said Jon Edignton, head of software investment at IP Group.
“They have created an innovation that has the potential to completely transform the internet as we know it while supporting a truly free and open web.”
Deep Render will spend the new capital on doubling its team, funding patent plans and its intentional expansion to the US.
The post Startup combatting the internet’s ‘ticking time bomb’ scoops £7.3m appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
