Dailymotion Picks Up $34 Million More

To finance its hasty U.S. invasion, Paris-based video-sharing hub Dailymotion has raised $34 million from Advent Venture Partners LLP and AGF Private Equity, a division of Allianz AG. That sum adds to the $9.5 million Dailymotion received from Atlas Ventures and Partech International.

The new funds will "allow [Dailymotion] to reach operating profitability,"said Mark Zaleski, Dailymotion's executive chairman.

Dailymotion recently made its official U.S. debut with a tailored site and a team of established stateside media executives.

Joy Marcus, former senior vice president of global marketing at Time Warner, is leading Dailymotion's U.S. expansion. Also new to the company is a specialized creative and programming team, including Danny Passman, formerly of MTV Networks, fuse and VH1, who is now Dailymotion's U.S. senior creative director.

Dailymotion.com already does particularly well with U.S. viewers--drawing more than 4.7 million video streams in April, according to comScore Video Metrix. The average video streamer at the site viewed more than ten videos and nearly one hour of video content during the month. Also, 18- to-34-year-olds represented 37% of Dailymotion's views, according to comScore.

Dailymotion recently worked with Jim Biederman on "The Great Sketch Comedy Showdown," and with the Weinstein Co. on a contest for "The Ultimate Star Wars Fanboy" (or Girl).

In late June, Dailymotion reached a deal to license programming from reality TV producer RDF USA. RDF USA is best known for producing prime-time reality shows like "Wife Swap" and most recently, "Shaq's Big Challenge." The non-exclusive first-look agreement calls for RDF to present Dailymotion with eight concepts for short-form video programming over the next 12 months.

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