BitTorrent Secures $20 Million in Venture Capital
Accel Partners Leads Second Round of Financing
San Francisco — December 1, 2006 — BitTorrent, Inc., home to the world's leading peer-assisted digital content delivery platform, today announced it has closed $20 million in Series B financing. New investor Accel Partners led the round with participation from initial investor DCM. This latest round of funding will support the company's growth, building on its leadership in high-performance content distribution on the Internet. BitTorrent not only plans to provide an online destination for downloadable entertainment content through the bittorrent.com marketplace, but also plans to employ its revolutionary technology to power other websites with the performance and efficiency of BitTorrent’s content delivery service.
"When I created BitTorrent in 2001, my mission was to solve the problem every website has when distributing large, popular files," said Bram Cohen, CEO and Co-Founder of BitTorrent. "This mission is still what drives BitTorrent today and couldn't be more relevant as the Web grows into a channel for consuming large, high-value entertainment and information content. This financing is a clear testament to the strength of our technology and potential growth, and I look forward to spearheading the continued development of BitTorrent."
BitTorrent, Inc. was founded by creator Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin in 2004. With many millions of users and growing by the day, BitTorrent traffic accounts for as much as 40 percent of all worldwide Internet traffic according to leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs). BitTorrent has worked closely with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to remove copyright infringing content from its website in order to create a safe place for consumers to interact with the technology. Over 20 film studios and television networks, including 20th Century Fox, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, expect to publish thousands of movies and TV shows on BitTorrent.com.
"We are excited to be leading this round of funding and investing in a company that has essentially revolutionized the way digital media content is distributed on the Internet," said Ping Li, General Partner, Accel Partners. "We've had strong conviction for peer-assisted content delivery and BitTorrent is the clear leader in this space. It has proven technology, the leading brand and a team in place to successfully execute in content delivery."
"BitTorrent's advantages as the early market leader for digital content delivery are increasingly apparent as it continues to grow its loyal user base and menu of premier content from the motion-picture, entertainment and other industries. Bram and Ashwin and their team have done a tremendous job of continuing to build value around what is one of the world's most compelling technologies for digital delivery," said David Chao, DCM Co-Founder and General Partner.
"To have the support from Accel Partners and initial investor DCM is fuel for our continued leadership as the preeminent mechanism for efficient content delivery on the Web. Both firms are top-tier venture investors and bring a wealth of expertise and relationships to support our dominant position in the marketplace," said Ashwin Navin, President and Co-founder of BitTorrent.
About BitTorrent Inc.
BitTorrent is home to the world's leading open-source file-sharing protocol by the same name, specifically created to overcome the obstacles of transferring large files over the Internet. Created in 2001, BitTorrent is enabling millions of users worldwide to publish, search and download popular digital content quickly, easily and securely. BitTorrent is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.bittorrent.com.
BitTorrent is a trademark of BitTorrent Inc.
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long legacy of success and innovation in the venture capital business. The firm is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs to build world-class Internet, software and infrastructure companies. Accel Partners has more than $4bn under management from its offices in Palo Alto, London and China, and its portfolio companies have completed IPOs that have created well over $150 billion in market capitalization. Representative current and former investments include Brightcove, Comscore, Double Fusion, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Glam, Macromedia, RealNetworks, Redback, UUNet, Veritas, and Walmart.com. For more information, please visit: www.accel.com.
About DCM
DCM is a top-performing venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs building early-stage technology companies. DCM partners manage more than US$1.5 billion and have funded leading technology companies including 2Wire, 51job (Nasdaq: JOBS), @Motion (Openwave), About.com (The New York Times Co.), All About (JASDAQ: 2454), Dang Dang, Foundry Networks (Nasdaq: FDRY), HireRight, Internap (AMEX: IIP), IPivot (Intel), JCI (Nasdaq Japan - Hercules: 9424), Kabu.com (TSE:8703), nQuire (Siebel), PGP Corporation, Recourse Technologies (Symantec), Sigmatel (Nasdaq: SGTL), SMIC (NYSE: SMI), UUNet (MCI), Vimicro (Nasdaq: VIMC), and Worksoft. DCM offers hands-on operational guidance and access to an extensive network of resources, including close relationships with many of the Pacific Rim’s leading companies and investors. For more information, please visit DCM's website at www.dcm.com.
Press Contact:
Lily Lin
BitTorrent Inc.
Director of Communications
Tel: +1 415 568 9007
Email: lily@bittorrent.com
