How to get your video company funded

It helps to tie yourself into the video revolution YouTube just kicked off...

On-demand video upstart ripe with cash
Internet video was in the spotlight this week, with Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube. But another digital video upstart seized some good fortune of its own earlier in the week.

Ripe Digital Entertainment, based in Los Angeles, raised $32 million in a second round of financing from several high-profile investors, including Hearst-Argyle, Time Warner Investments and Columbia Capital. The investment was one of the more sizable bets in digital media companies made this year, according to the company.

Like YouTube, Ripe aims to attract viewers, largely young males, to watch short, 3- to 5-minute videos. While YouTube lets average Joes upload video clips and share them with the world, Ripe creates or licenses short videos in the form of big surf riding, "Jackass"-like stunts or beauty contests. Ripe also primarily distributes programming over on-demand cable networks, like those of Time Warner and Comcast, as opposed to putting it on a Web stage, where Youtube dominates.

Both companies rely on advertising, and just how each company plays up marketing in the future will be the formula for payoff. For its part, Ripe aims to tie product placements and sponsorship into the video programming. With the funds, it will also bolster ad sales, broaden programming, and build out video services for broadband and mobile networks. More...