• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 11, 2009

Auditude, an online video advertising startup, has closed $10.5 million in a financing led by Redpoint Ventures and including existing investor Greylock Partners. It brings the total raised so far by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company to more than $23 million.

Auditude works with partners including MySpace, MTV Networks and Warner Bros. to help them monetize online video. Its technology automatically analyzes uploaded video clips to identify copyrighted programming--a "Daily Show" or Colbert segment--and then serves targeted overlay ads within that content.

The company's platform promises Web publishers and big media companies a money-making alternative to copyright takedown notices and other legal means of blocking the distribution of pirated clips online. Auditude CEO Adam Cahan said Tuesday the company would use the new funding to expand its product development and sales teams. He expects Auditude's staff of 30 will grow to about 45 by year's end.

"We've really established our stronghold in the market, and now it's about building our customer base," he said. "We have a host of additional partners coming on--both Web sites and content owners." MySpace teamed up with MTV last November to use Auditude's platform to monetize MTV-owned clips that users upload to the social network.

In February, MySpace and Warner Bros. began using the system to insert overlay ads in music videos on the site.