Cloud startup Uploadcare secures $1.7M to disrupt the $12.4 billion Content Delivery Network (CDN) market

Uploadcare, a content delivery platform that optimizes web performance for developers, startups and large enterprises,  has raised $1.7 million in new funding for the acquisition of Blinkloader, a content optimization platform that speeds up content delivery and allows developers to fully comply with new web performance and industry-specific privacy requirements. The round is co-led by Runa Capital and Vendep Capital, who will join existing investors Vaizra Capital and LVL1 Group.

Founded in 2011 by Anatoly Chernyakov, Igor Debatur, and Valentin Golev, the Miami, Florida-based is an end-to-end cloud platform disrupting the traditional Content Delivery Network (CDN) market through its Bi-Directional technology. The company’s founders used the experience of building complicated in-house technology systems as a foundation for establishing Uploadcare, which evolved from a web agency that launched over 150 products to market to become a platform that’s creating critical new industry solutions that were previously unavailable.

Uploadcare combines adaptive content delivery with high-speed origin services, using AI to optimize files, images, and videos based on each specific end-users’ device, browser, and network connection. Its Bi-Directional CDN technology encompasses the entire content handling lifecycle to accelerate content uploads, reduce traffic costs by 62%, and deliver content nine times faster than traditional CDN platforms.

Uploadcare will use the new funding to fuel its growth plans to further accelerate content delivery speed and reduce internet traffic volume for enterprises. Through its acquisition of Blinkloader, the company will build upon its mission to streamline the development process and improve time to market by providing a solution that helps ensure all content fully complies with modern web performance standards, ultimately enabling enterprises to focus on their core business, rather than spending time maintaining file infrastructure.

“In 2016, 44 billion GB of data was created per day and that number is expected to grow to 463 billion GB per day by 2025,” said Igor Debatur, Founder and CEO of Uploadcare. “We built our next-gen technology from the ground up to create an end-to-end solution that goes above and beyond traditional CDN capabilities. By handling the heavy lifting for enterprises, our agile cloud platform enables them to reduce traffic costs and collect content from users worldwide at maximum efficiency and speed. This late stage seed funding allows us to continue developing adaptive CDN technologies that are built with the modern developer in mind to offer a superior user experience at the fastest pace possible. We are proud to have the support of our investors as we work to help enterprises of all sizes unlock the next generation of intelligent content handling at scale. This is a key milestone for Uploadcare, and a true validation of our growth and leadership in the marketplace.”

With billions of images, videos, documents and other files uploaded and processed each hour, businesses need to ensure their customers that their content is secure, adaptable, and being delivered at the utmost speed. By creating a new standard for content delivery, Uploadcare is able to help a wide range of technology companies including SaaS platforms, online marketplaces, and ecommerce websites cut down their time to market by 80% and increase their ROI by 470%. Over 3800 global customers are currently using Uploadcare as their go-to solution for smart content handling including Mozilla, 2U Inc, L’Oréal, Universe and Prezly, as well as YCombinator-backed companies like Shogun, Openland and Faros.

“The amount of data that’s created per day is rising at a breakneck rate,” said Dmitry Chikhachev, General Partner at Runa Capital. “With its robust infrastructure of delivery networks that span the globe, Uploadcare has quietly become a go-to solution for developers and engineers at some of the world’s largest companies. With differentiated technology and a strong leadership team, we believe that Uploadcare is well positioned to accelerate its growth and further solidify its leadership in the content delivery market.”