Vidyo’s Innovative Videoconferencing Services

According to an Infonetics Research report, there is a global improvement in the market for videoconferencing and telepresence services. The worldwide market for videoconferencing and telepresence equipment grew 5% over the year to $3.2 billion in 2013. The growth is driven by the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and EMEA which recorded an 8% growth over the year. The report projects that the market will grow 3% annually over the next five years.

Vidyo’s Offerings
Hackensack, New Jersey-based Vidyo is a pioneer in Personal Telepresence services that enables multi-party video conferences using several devices, including personal computers and mobile devices. Founded by Ofer Shapiro in 2005, their patented technologies have been built on H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) standard that helps them deliver error resilience and lowest latency videoconferencing products over the Internet. Their solutions can be deployed over multiple devices with minimal investments. Instead of requiring new and proprietary networking pieces of hardware or a networking upgrade, Vidyo’s solutions run on standard, X86-based servers and on standard OS including iOS, Android, Windows, and OSX devices.

Vidyo offers services to multiple industries and their client list includes names like Hitachi, Teliris and ShoreTel. Their services have been deployed in very innovative ways. Recently, Vidyo has expanded their presence in the healthcare industry by offering services that enable patients to get medical advice from Doctors without really visiting them. They have tied up with Mercy SafeWatch to provide a 24×7 High Definition video connection between ICU patients, healthcare providers, and family members. Similarly, they have integrated with American Well, Epic, and Philips’ eCare Manager, which allow services like connecting their high-tech beds through videos so that specialists can be brought virtually into the patient’s room without really visiting them.

Besides healthcare, Vidyo is also expanding into newer products especially in the Internet of Things. They are researching integrating their applications into everyday devices by implanting sensors to improve communications and computing capabilities. As of now, though, their products are not available on devices smaller than a smartphone.

The company earns revenues by selling their services under their own brand as well as by powering services provided by others including the likes of Google+ Hangouts.

Vidyo’s Financials
They do not disclose their financials, but have mentioned that they have been earning revenues for the last six years. Revenues have recorded strong growth with 68% increase reported last year driven by a 77% increase in healthcare and 67% growth in large enterprise business. They have been venture funded so far with $139 million in funding received from investors including Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds, QuestMark Partners, Juniper Networks, Saints Capital, Triangle Peak Partners, Four Rivers Group, and Star Ventures. Their latest round of funding was held last week when they raised $20 million from existing investors at an undisclosed valuation. Vidyo plans to use these funds for research and development. They are expected to file for an IPO before next year.