Vadio (vā'dē-ō) Raises $7.5 Million in Series A Funding to Fuel Expansion and Usher in an Era of Visual Content on Digital Streaming Services

Vadio Expands Executive Leadership Team With Former President of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Yair Landau, as Chairman and COO, and Rio Caraeff, Former CEO of Vevo, Who Joins Vadio’s Board of Advisors

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vadio, the first distributed technology platform for disseminating music videos to streaming audio platforms, today announced a $7.5 million Series A round of funding to scale the company’s efforts to deliver music video content to the services people enjoy most. Marker LLC led the round, with participation from existing investors and leading names in the music, entertainment and technology industries. Additionally, the company has announced the expansion of its leadership team with Yair Landau, former Vice Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and President of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, joining as Vadio’s new Chairman and COO. Vadio has also added Rio Caraeff, former CEO of Vevo, to its Board of Advisors.

“Vadio is evolving the way that consumers experience music by providing a platform for streaming destinations to incorporate visual content and infuse two things that people already love – streaming music and videos,” said Rick Scanlon, a Founding Partner of Marker. “By offering a platform that both enables media companies to profit and grow and gives consumers an enhanced experience, Vadio is poised to reshape the music and entertainment industry.”

The additional funding and expansion of Vadio’s leadership team are reflections of the rapidly increasing demand for visual content. With viewership of music videos online in the U.S. growing by more than 800 percent from 2007-2013, Vadio’s platform, which brings music video content to audio streaming sites, is in high demand. By bringing notable experts Landau and Caraeff to the team, Vadio can continue to build upon its current product offerings and bring new streaming video content to more digital media companies.

“This round of funding and the simultaneous growth of our leadership team are two significant moves for Vadio as we continue to grow and bring change to the streaming music experience. Music videos completely changed the entertainment industry when they were first broadcast on television. Now, through Vadio, there is the opportunity to once again transform the industry by moving videos to the places where consumers already love to listen to music – streaming audio services,” said Bryce Clemmer, CEO of Vadio. “Yair and Rio’s experience is invaluable in helping Vadio lead this transformation. They are both pioneers in bringing new digital experiences to the mainstream in the music and entertainment industries.”

Landau worked at Sony for 17 years, where he oversaw some of the studio’s earliest ventures into the Internet and was instrumental in bringing the company into the digital age. With nearly three decades of experience in digital media and entertainment, Landau brings a wealth of knowledge to the Vadio team. Landau will help guide Vadio in expanding its existing services and partnering with the industry’s leading music and media companies that are looking for ways to create more compelling experiences for their audiences.

“It has long been my belief that anything that is better through video will go that way online,” said Landau. “I really like Bryce, Elliott and the whole team at Vadio and believe that together we can accelerate the evolution to video for a wide range of partners and enrich people's experiences.”

Landau was most recently a partner at MK Capital while serving as President of Mass Animation, a virtual animation studio, which he founded in 2008. Prior to founding Mass Animation, Landau served as Vice Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and President of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, which consisted of Sony Pictures Imageworks (visual effects), Sony Pictures Animation, and Sony Online Entertainment (games). There, he oversaw the expansion into the digital marketplace and helped it grow into a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games with a subscriber base of more than 750,000 active accounts around the globe. His contributions at Sony garnered numerous industry awards and accolades. Landau supervised the production of Imageworks’ Academy-Award winning animated short The ChubbChubbs!, as well as the production of Sony’s animated film Surf’s Up, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2007. He also served as the executive producer of Sony Animation’s film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature Film in 2010.

Additionally, Rio Caraeff joins Vadio’s board of advisors to guide strategy on the expansion of Vadio’s current product and service offerings. Caraeff most recently served as CEO of Vevo, the world’s leading all-premium music video and entertainment platform and a current Vadio partner, where he helped grow the company into a leading distributor of online music videos.

“The landscape of the music industry is changing and video is becoming one of the most important experiences for media companies to have,” said Caraeff. “I had the opportunity to work with the Vadio team when they partnered with Vevo, and I am looking forward to now being part of that team to help them continue making video streaming more available to the music industry and bring quality programming to passionate fans.”

Named by Billboard as one of the most powerful people in the music business, Caraeff brings more than two decades of experience in the media and music industries. Prior to founding Vevo, Caraeff held numerous executive level positions in the music industry, including terms as Executive Vice President at Universal Music Group, Vice President at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Vice President at Sony Digital Media Ventures and Sony Music Entertainment alongside Landau. Caraeff was also recently included in Fast Company’s 1000 Most Creative People and has been featured multiple times in Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list.

Vadio is the first platform to enable digital streaming music services and entertainment platforms to play premium music videos from their favorite artists and serve engaging video ads at a significant scale. Streaming music platforms can embed video channels into websites, mobile applications, OTT applications and other digital platforms to create curated channels of music videos to increase user engagement and create new video ad inventory that is available in minutes. The company’s services are currently available in fifteen countries across the globe and recently launched in Australia with Lachlan Murdoch’s Nova Entertainment.

For more information visit www.vadio.com.

ABOUT VADIO (vā'dē-ō)

Vadio powers online video experiences. Vadio makes it possible for people to enjoy music videos where they already listen to music by providing an online video platform to media companies across four continents. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with an office in Los Angeles, California. For more information, visit http://vadio.com/.

SutherlandGold Group for Vadio
Bethany Mullinix, 415-237-1665
[email protected]

Source: Vadio

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