API.video raises $5.5M Seed round, and that’s not abnormal these days

The size of funding rounds has grown over the last five years. When we were raising our Seed round for Bold Metrics, the average Seed round was in the $1M – $1.5M range, now it’s not uncommon to see Seed rounds hit $5M and higher.

In fact, if you go back in time, Seed rounds today are really more like the Series A round of the past. Here’s a look at the data from 2010 through 2019:

(Chart source – Wing via Techcrunch)

So it came as no surprise to see a new service aimed at making video easier for developers, API.video announced a $5.5M Seed round last week. The round was led by Blossom Capital, a VC firm based in London. The kinds of startups raising $5M Seed rounds in the current global economy are usually repeat founders that already have a solid track record and often a pre-existing relationship with the VC who leads the round. This rings true for API.video:

Founded in 2019 by Cédric Montet, the former founder and CEO of Libcast’s live streaming and on-demand SaaS video platform, api.video aims to do a lot of the heavy lifting required to incorporate modern video functionality into websites and mobile apps, and in turn help grow the market for what it calls “transactional video communications”.(Source – Techcrunch)

Given how critical video streaming is in our new normal, it makes sense that a company focused on helping developers easily integrate it into their products makes a lot of sense. It also happens to be the first .VIDEO domain names I’ve personally seen in the wild, and it’s a good use of the domain extension, especially given what the company does. I’m not sure APIVideo.com would get the point across in the same way, but I still think the domain probably should buy that domain and forward it to avoid confusion.

Either way, it’s going to be interesting to watch API.video grow, with a fresh $5.5M in the bank and a world more dependent on video streaming than ever before, I think it’s safe to say the sky is the limit here. Congrats to Cédric and team, here’s to the journey ahead!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton