Applicaster has secured $11m to support continued technology and customer growth amid what it sees as record demand for streaming content services.

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Laor: ‘consumer viewing habits creating a fundamental shift for media companies’

The funding round is led by Viola Growth, with participation from 83 North, Pitango, Saban Ventures, Planven Investments and La Maison. This latest round of financing brings Applicaster’s total raised to about $67m. In March last year, the groups invested $20m in the company after it recorded 100% growth in annual recurring revenue.

Eran Westman, partner at Viola Growth, and who is also on Applicaster’s board, said: “There has been a sea change in how we consume media, and in the past few months companies have looked to adapt direct-to-consumer app strategies to support this competitive OTT market. Applicaster is uniquely positioned to meet this historic demand by providing agile and flexible solutions for its clients. We believe the category will continue to grow as will Applicaster, with its flexible and robust platform.”

Applicaster’s SaaS app management platform, Zapp, is designed to simplify the way media companies build, manage and distribute content, reducing costs and significantly decreasing time to market.

The company last month launched Zapp’s newest framework, called Quick Brick, which Applicaster says streamlines the design, deployment and management of complex video apps across Android, iOS, Apple TV (tvOS), Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung and LG TVs. The new core framework is said to not only simplify app development by eliminating the need for coding the visual elements of OTT apps in multiple languages, but also to exponentially decrease time to market across all platforms and enable agile, iterative development of apps that can quickly adapt and respond to market requirements.

Jonathan Laor, co-founder and CEO, Applicaster, said: “There has been a fundamental shift in consumer viewing habits that is creating a fundamental shift for media companies. Mobile and connected TV apps have never been a bigger part of their business model than now. Applicaster has always remained several steps ahead of industry growth and technological change. We’re excited to continue working with content providers to ultimately ensure viewers are engaged and receptive. Applicaster’s speed and flexibility in reaching these audiences are key in adapting strategies to support this burgeoning market.”

Applicaster works with a wide range of media companies and premium content providers, including DirectTV, Viacom, Prosieben and Fox.

Looking to increase its own agility and responsiveness, Applicaster has appointed company executive Devra Prywes to oversee product and marketing to remove silos to reflect a more integrated mandate for delivering personalised and innovative customer experiences. This integrated approach is said to reflect the company’s focused mandate on global growth and customer experience. She now leads the overall business marketing strategy globally across all product lines, with a mission to transform marketing into a continuous growth driver for the organisation.

Simultaneously, Applicaster is furthering investments in R&D and tech, with engineering being integrated under a unified Operations Group led by co-founder and CTO Neer Friedman.