Full press release below:

Vantrix Closes US $14 Million in Series ‘C’ Financing

BOSTON & MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vantrix, the global leader of mobile video optimization and delivery solutions for streaming, browsing and messaging, today announced the completion of a US $14 million Series C investment. The financing round was led by Tudor Ventures, the venture capital and private equity arm of Tudor Investment Corp., with pro rata participation from existing investors Summerhill Venture Partners, JK&B Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Innovacom Venture Capital and Entrepia Ventures. The new working capital will serve to help Vantrix expand its operations following on the growth the company has experienced and further anticipates in video delivery and bandwidth optimization.

“Vantrix has demonstrated the proven ability to gain Tier 1 customers and partners resulting in a market-leading position in mobile video,” said Dan MacKeigan, Principal at Tudor Ventures. “The company has built an exceptional track record and management team, and we are delighted at the prospect of supporting their expansion strategies.”

As part of the funding round, Vantrix also announced that Mr. MacKeigan has joined its Board of Directors. Other directors include Joe Catalfamo, Managing Director at Summerhill Venture Partners; Ali Shadman, Partner at JK&B Capital; John Major, former Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM) executive and currently non-executive Chairman at Broadcom (Nasdaq:BRCM); Gary Donahee, former Nortel executive, and Vantrix co-founders Allan Benchetrit, President & CEO and Jean Mayrand, CTO.

“We are thrilled to have Tudor join the Vantrix family. This is a tremendous validation of the company’s leadership position and momentum,” said Allan Benchetrit, President & CEO of Vantrix. “With over 35 new operator customers in the last two years, Vantrix has emerged as the natural industry leader in mobile video delivery and optimization. Our goal is to build on our proven success and continue to help operators capitalize on mobile video services, whether on deck or over-the-top, in the most cost-effective manner possible.”

According to industry data it is predicted that over the next 5 years, mobile Internet traffic will increase by approximately 40 times by 2014, with video accounting for 66% of global mobile traffic1. Vantrix enables mobile operators to reduce the costs of delivering video to laptops, phones, iPhones and iPads by as much as 50%.

The Vantrix Mediadvance platform ensures the richest user experience and most cost-effective roll-out of premium services such as mobile and web TV, video on demand, MMS and user generated content. Vantrix infrastructure software is deployed in over 60 mobile and broadband networks worldwide, and the company’s unique expertise allows its customers to implement cost effective and profitable services by reducing the OPEX and CAPEX investments necessary to run converged multimedia.

About Vantrix

Vantrix, the global leader of mobile video optimization and delivery solutions, ensures the richest user experience and most cost-effective roll-out of premium services such as mobile and web TV, video on demand, MMS and user generated content. Vantrix is proud to count among its customers: Sprint (NYSE:S), Orange, Telefonica (NYSE:TEF), T-Mobile, TeliaSonera (OMX:TLSN), MTS, Etisalat (ADX:ETISALAT), Saudi Telecom Company (TADAWUL:STC), and Tata Telecom, reaching over 700 million subscribers worldwide. Vantrix is headquartered in Montreal with offices in London, Hong Kong, and Dubai. To learn more about Vantrix, visit www.vantrix.com.

About Tudor Ventures

Tudor Ventures is the venture capital and private equity arm of Tudor Investment Corporation, an internationally recognized diversified investment management firm, currently managing approximately $12 billion in assets.

Tudor has been investing in venture capital and other private equity opportunities since the early 1990′s. Over this time, Tudor and its principals have invested in over 75 companies, with a strong record of investment success. Through its private equity funds, Tudor currently manages over $700 million in capital commitments.

Tudor launched a third fund called Tudor Ventures III L.P. in June 2007 with $262 million in capital commitments. Limited partners in this fund include large institutional investors, endowments, fund of funds, and high net-worth individual investors along with a significant investment from Tudor’s proprietary capital. For more information, please visit www.tudorventures.com.

1 Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Update, 2009 – 2014

Turbine directly competes with Activision Blizzard, the developer of World of Warcraft.  Turbine plans to release Dungeons & Dragons Online into a free game later this year called Eberron Unlimited.

Investors in Turbine include Columbia Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures, and Granite Global Ventures.  Turbine previously raised $95 million.  The company has about 300 employees.

The company is even planning on announcing their first console game in the near future.  Turbine may even buy out another gaming company.

[via PEHub/alarm:clock]

This model seems very similar to Yahoo! Music, but tailors more towards a specific demographic. Batanga’s radio services and membership is free.

Batanga was founded in 1999 by Troy McConnell and Rafael Urbina is the CEO. Batanga receives about 4.5 million unique visitors per month and millions of videos and songs are streamed per month. Competitors include AOL Latino, elhood.com, Univision.com, and Yahoo-Telemundo.

References:
[1] Private Equity Hub: Batanga Raises $30 Million