A London start-up seeking to tackle the environmental impact of video streaming has raised £4.5 million.
iSIZE is a deep-tech company that applies deep learning to optimise video streaming and delivery. It has already secured licensing agreements with leading technology and streaming companies.
The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from existing investors including TD Veen and Patrick Pichette, Chairman of Twitter and ex-CFO of Google.
The amount of video streamed over the internet is at all-time high, a trend which has been accelerated by the pandemic and the shift to working from home. At the same time, streaming and content companies are facing pressure from users and advertisers to deliver ever-increasing video quality.
With forecasts projecting video to reach 82% of total global internet traffic by 2022, there is also growing awareness of its carbon footprint, with research indicating that it already contributes to more than 1% of global emissions.
As a result, streaming and content providers are increasingly turning to technology to address the challenge of delivering a reliable and high-quality experience while managing the financial and environmental costs of doing so.
To help solve this problem, iSIZE has pioneered deep-learning solutions that optimise video streaming quality while reducing bitrate requirements, allowing for a significant reduction in data and energy consumption.
The potential impact of its technology is huge and iSIZE has already attracted attention from some of the world’s largest technology companies to whom they already licensed their BitSave technology.
Headquartered in London, iSIZE was founded by Sergio Grce and Dr. Yiannis Andreopoulos who saw an opportunity to tackle the challenges caused by the explosion of video streaming.
The founding team combines many years of research in machine learning, neural networks and video signal processing, evidenced by dozens of research publications. The company is also a graduate of the Creative Destruction Lab Oxford 2019-2020 programme where it received advice and investment from expert mentors.
ISIZE intends to use the funding raised to accelerate its traction in the U.S and to further strengthen its technical team and patent portfolio to continue improving the results and innovations it delivers to its customers.
“Today there are more people streaming more video than ever before. Our customers recognise both the commercial opportunity and their social responsibility to optimise their video delivery pipelines with our pioneering technology,” said Grce.
“We are excited to partner with Octopus Ventures to tap into their network and expertise in building world-changing companies.”
Simon King, Partner and deep tech investor at Octopus Ventures, said: “The technology iSIZE has created is pioneering and is already being used by some of the world’s largest companies to reduce the costs and energy used in streaming.
“Consumer demand for high quality video is only going to increase as our devices are upgraded, so it’s vital that we find new ways to reduce the environmental impact.
“We are very familiar with this space having been an investor in Magic Pony and Sergio is one of those visionary founders who we believe can build something truly special.”