Vidyo Gets Funding; Cognizant Acquires Princeton-Based Zaffera
Last week, Vidyo Inc., headquartered in Hackensack, announced it had raised $22.5 million in a Series D round to fund the global expansion of its teleconferencing system. The company has raised about $97 million in total since its founding in 2005 and said it would use the funds to ramp up sales and marketing activities globally.
Vidyo would not say how many employees are currently based in N.J., but Manta estimates that of the 200 people the company now employs, there are about 100 here. A Vidyo spokeswoman said the company’s entire R & D activity is located in N.J.
The company has been awarded nine patents and has 27 pending for its VidyoRouter platform, considered a disruptive technology that makes enterprise-quality videoconferencing cheaper than what is currently available. Vidyo’s competitors include Cisco Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA)and Polycom Inc.(Pleasanton, CA), which offer very expensive enterprise-grade systems, and some startups, including Vsee (Sunnyvale, CA), which is also trying to make a less expensive videoconferencing alternative.
According to the spokeswoman, Vidyo won several industry awards in 2011, including the 2011 Best of Interop Award for Collaboration, the Frost and Sullivan Enterprise Video Conferencing Infrastructure Award and, most recently, the Wall Street Journal Innovation Award for Networking, Internet and Broadband. The D financing round was led by QuestMark Partners with existing investors Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Star Ventures and Four Rivers Group participating.
In other N.J. tech deals, Teaneck-based Cognizant Technology Solutions made a strategic acquisition last week, purchasing all the assets of Zaffera LLC, a Princeton-based SAP retail consulting and software development firm.
In this case, what began in N.J. stays in N.J. Neither Zaffera nor Cognizant would reveal the financial details of the deal, but the acquisition should increase Cognizant’s ability to provide industry-specific SAP consulting and software solutions to retailers. Cognizant will announce results for the third quarter of 2011 on Wednesday, Nov. 2, before the market opening.
