July 07--Whipclip was set to announce Tuesday a $40-million investment, adding to $20 million in previous funding for the Santa Monica start-up.
TV broadcasters and their viewers can use Whipclip's app to generate highlight videos from television in near real-time, whether from sporting matches, talk shows or popular dramas. Enabling media and viewers to legally post TV clips online has turned out well for initial testers.
Spike TV made available highlights from last month's mixed martial arts battle between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock during its East Coast broadcast. Dozens of media outlets and individuals re-posted the clips, and Whipclip Chief Executive Richard Rosenblatt said that Spike TV credits those videos for leading to a "significant" uptick in viewership for the West Coast airing. The videos led to at least 57,000 visits to Spike TV's programming schedule website, and the TV broadcast set a record for a Bellator MMA match on Spike with more than 2 million viewers.
Whipclip has seen 10 million views in three months. That's without an Android app, which is due to arrive in a few days.
Wealth-management firm Eminence Capital led the latest funding. Whipclip is now expected to entertain investment offers from broadcasters, according to a source close to the company.
paresh.dave@latimes.com
