Overlay.TV Video Platform Enables True Contextual Advertising

Ottawa, Canada (PRWEB) January 15, 2008 -- Overlay.TV today announced it has completed a $4.6 million Series A financing round and will be launching its Internet video-advertising platform on February 14, 2008. The funding, from Celtic House Venture Partners, EdgeStone Capital Partners and Tech Capital Partners, will provide Overlay.TV with the resources required to successfully deploy its innovative solution.

Overlay.TV: Watch it. Click it. Get it.TM

The Overlay.TV platform allows viewers to interact with online video, and enables content owners and distributors to monetize their video assets. As video streams from its original location, such as leading video sharing sites, viewers are able to opt-in to receive ?overlays? which provide contextual information about the content being viewed. The overlay technology allows any image in a video to be ?hyper-enabled? and allows a viewer to click on the image, right in the video, and take any number of desired actions that are directly associated with the context of the image being viewed.

The overlays can be embedded in external web pages, online shops, blogs and social network profiles. The simplicity and elegance of the Overlay.TV technology means that anyone posting video content will have a tool to add contextual information directly onto the video content ?- no pre-roll, no post-roll, no banners, and no changes to the video at all.

Authors, content owners and e-commerce providers are able to offer advertisers a measurable return on investment for their product placements, without increasing the costs associated with video production.

?The huge uptake of online video, both professional and user-generated, has created phenomenal opportunities for advertisers and content owners seeking to monetize their assets and reach. However, the fundamental challenge of delivering the right message at the right time still exists,? said Rob Lane, President/CEO of Overlay.TV. ?Some interesting attempts to infer video context have started to emerge, but none have proven to be very effective. Empowering users to determine context explicitly and giving them the tools to create their own interactions and ads are what Overlay.TV delivers. We have enabled product placement for the masses and have provided viewers with a simple way to buy what they see in online video.?

?People are struggling to monetize video on the internet and to date, none of the solutions have been overly compelling,? said Andrew Waitman, Managing Partner, Celtic House Venture Partners. ?Overlay.TV has taken a complex issue and developed a solution that enables anyone to add interactivity and advertising to online video.?

For a preview of the upcoming launch on February 14, 2008, please visit www.overlay.tv

Company contact:

Hessie Jones - Director, Marketing

613 761 6152 x 226

About Overlay.TV

Overlay.TV is an interactive media company that provides a video-advertising platform enabling users to lay contextual information directly onto video content. Overlay.TV is a private company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. For more information, please visit www.overlay.tv.

About Celtic House Venture Partners

Celtic House Venture Partners is a leading venture capital firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build high velocity technology companies from the ground up. Since 1994, Celtic House has funded over 60 companies and committed over US$500 million--more than 70% to concept-stage start-ups. By working closely with company management, Celtic House has generated billions in stockholder value and proceeds through 17 successful exits to date, 13 of which were seed-funded by Celtic House. With a history of backing winning teams, including Abatis Systems, Avesta Technologies, Bookham, Extreme Packet Devices, FastLane, NorthChurch, Orchestream, OctigaBay, PixStream, Memsic and Sandvine, Celtic House continues to produce superior venture returns in its target regions in Canada and Europe. Today Celtic House is working with more than 20 active portfolio companies from its offices in Ottawa, Toronto and London, UK.

About EdgeStone Capital Partners

EdgeStone Capital Partners is one of Canada's leading private equity firms and has managed in excess of $2.5 billion of private capital on behalf of institutional and high net worth clients. EdgeStone provides capital, strategic direction and business and financial advice to help promising early-stage and mid-market companies achieve their full potential. EdgeStone leverages the resources of its broad business network and ensures an alignment of interests to achieve superior returns for all stakeholders. For more information, visit www.edgestone.com.

About Tech Capital Partners Inc.

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, Tech Capital Partners manages $95 million in venture capital. Tech Capital provides seed financing, hands-on leadership, market strategy and operational guidance to early-stage technology companies that have the potential to compete at a global level. Since its inception in 2001, Tech Capital has invested in some of Canada's most innovative high-tech companies, including: AideRSS (www.aiderss.com), Covarity (www.covarity.com), LiveHive Systems (www.livehivesystems.com), OverlayTV (www.overlay.tv), Sandvine (TSX:SVC; AIM:SAND) (www.sandvine.com), Sidense (www.sidense.com), Sirific Wireless (www.sirific.com), Software Innovation (www.softinn.com) and VideoLocus (acquired by LSI Logic). An active advocate of innovation and entrepreneurialism, Tech Capital maintains a strong presence in Waterloo's thriving technology community. For more information, please visit http://www.techcapital.com

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