$34m boost for Aereo expansion
January 8, 2014
By Colin Mann
Internet TV streaming service Aereo has closed a $34 million Series C round of financing. The new round of financing will support Aereo’s nationwide expansion and increased investments in hiring and technology.
In January 2013, Aereo said that it intended to expand to 22 new US cities beyond its New York initial launch during the course of the year, but fell short of that target, counting New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Salt Lake City, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit and Baltimore as its initial launch markets.
IAC was joined by iconic media investor Gordon Crawford and Himalaya Capital Management, as well as existing investors Highland Capital Partners, FirstMark Capital and others for this additional round of funding. Crawford, a media and entertainment industry veteran, is one of the industry’s most influential and successful investors, having worked at Capital Research and Management for 41 years. Himalaya Capital Management is led by global investor and human rights activist Li Lu.
“Aereo experienced tremendous growth in 2013 and we expect 2014 to be another blockbuster year,” said Aereo CEO and Founder Chet Kanojia. “Last year at this time, Aereo was launched in only New York City. Today, Aereo is available in 10 markets and will grow to 15 by the end of the quarter. In 2013, we also launched our first native app for Android, made improvements to enhance the user experience and more than doubled our employee headcount. Consumers are craving choice and options and as a result, we continue to see explosive growth across all our markets.”
Kanojia said that Aereo had scaled very quickly in 365 days and that the additional funding would allow the company to maintain this rapid pace of growth. “We are thrilled to have a world-class group of investors who believe innovative, cloud-based technologies, like Aereo, are the future,” he concluded.