Swedish VOD Provider Voddler Raises $2.2 Million; Inks Deals With Disney, Paramount

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Voddler, a Swedish VOD tech and content provider, has raised $2.2 million in funding, per an SEC filing. The company is backed in part by Deseven Capital AB; CEO Marcus Backlund is a partner at the investment firm. Founded in 2005 by Jan Soderberg, Voddler has now raised around $16 million in funding, including a $12 million round (pdf) in 2007, from a group of backers including Rosewood Stone Group, Freja Ventures and Lotsa SA. The company did not respond to a request for details about this new round.

Voddler recently secured deals with Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Paramount Pictures to carry content from their various studios, including Dreamworks, Touchstone and Miramax; in the wake of The Pirate Bay’s demise, the partnerships are a sign that U.S. studios are serious about finding new ways to give people overseas a greater number of legal options for web-based access to their content.

Voddler’s VOD platform runs on the open-source XMBC Media Center (which was originally created to power streaming video through the first Xbox console). The company has been letting users test its service in small batches; with the new Disney and Paramount deals, it opened up the beta to 500,000 new users. Voddler has offices in Stockholm, Palo Alto and Beijing.

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