• by Shankar Gupta , January 9, 2007

Broadband video entertainment site Heavy.com has closed a $20 million round of venture capital funding from Polaris Venture Partners.

Heavy.com will use the funds to grow internationally and to finance the launch of new Heavy-branded sites in the United States, including a Heavy.com sports channel and Heavy.com for teens.

Internationally, Heavy.com plans to expand into Canada, the United Kingdom (which will be used as a jumping-off point into Western Europe) and Australia (marking the start of a Heavy.com presence in Southeast Asia). The international expansion sites will largely carry the same content seen in the States, save for certain programs like Heavy News, which will be produced locally.

Site co-founder Simon Assaad said that the Heavy.com platform--especially MyHeavy, which allows users to upload their own content--was easily exportable and customizable for different regions. "We have this platform that we've created through MyHeavy that allows people to upload content wherever they are," he said. "It's pretty cool to be able to roll out internationally without having to build at TV stations in every market."

Polaris last year invested $10 million in Heavy.com.