Signiant now has access to new funding to support continued expansion of its SaaS business as demand from streaming, large file distribution and remote production increases.
Signiant Media Shuttle portals
Signiant, a developer of file transfer software for media and entertainment applications, has received a majority growth investment from Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm.
Signiant’s software is used to move large media files – from movies and TV shows to sports and news content – through the media supply chain quickly and securely, regardless of where the files are stored. Available to users as a file transfer SaaS platform, the core technology is becoming more critical as media companies produce rich, VFX-heavy content for distribution across a range of online streaming platforms, often involving creators and vendors in multiple locations.
Signiant in the Tech Stack
Historically, Signiant’s tools occupy a position at the base of the media tech stack and pipeline, the set of tools and processes used to build and run an application or project. Tech stacks typically include frontend and backend tools, programming languages, databases, applications and so on, linked together with APIs. From this position, the Signiant now aims to expand the functionality of the platform into related media services.
Signiant’s products are used by some of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies in sectors such as post production, professional sports, gaming and broadcast/cable TV. Customers include larger companies as NBCU, Warner Brothers Discovery, Ubisoft and the National Hockey League, as well as many smaller media companies from around the world.
“We are especially pleased to partner with Battery, a firm with a long history of scaling enterprise SaaS businesses, to begin the next chapter of the Signiant story,” said Signiant Chief Executive Margaret Craig. “Both the company and the media industry are at inflection points. We feel our solutions are specifically suited to meet the current moment in media and entertainment, which demands the type of efficiency and fast time-to-value that modern, multi-tenant SaaS platforms can deliver.”
Expansion
Signiant will use the investment from Battery to fund product development and its plans for expansion into the most suitable markets, with the right messaging at the right time, as well as potential future acquisitions in the media technology space.
The company previously completed two add-on acquisitions which expanded Signiant’s product footprint – Levels Beyond, creators of the Reach Engine media workflow software suite, and Lesspain Software, which develops media processing software and the desktop application Kyno. Signiant remains committed to pursuing future acquisitions to better serve its customers.
“As the production of media content becomes more specialized and complex due to advances in video, sound quality and visual effects, it means media files have grown larger and more difficult to move around and track,” said Battery Partner Dave Tabors. “In our view, Signiant has cracked the code on this problem, building a robust SaaS business to facilitate the transfer of these files in a secure way. We see the opportunity to grow the company’s market even further.”
Battery principal Roland Anderson noted, “Signiant’s software, including Media Shuttle that uses a proprietary protocol to move files over IP networks, between both public cloud and on-premises storage locations, is high-quality and attracts loyal customers. We’re excited to work with the company to fuel further growth, both organic and through potential acquisitions.” Both Tabors and Anderson are joining Signiant’s board. www.signiant.com
