Twitvid raises $6.5 million to boost video on Twitter

Twitvid has raised $6.5 million in funding in a Series B that was led by Azure Capital Partners, with existing investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson also chipping in. The company said in a press release that it wants to use the new cash infusion to hire additional people and build out its infrastructure.

Twitvid started out as one of countless Twitter video sharing sites, but has manage to stick around even as a number of its competitors (12seconds, Twitvid.io, Twiddeo) had to shut down. Part of that may have to do with partnerships with popular Twitter clients like Tweetdeck; part of it may be because the service embraced mobile platforms early on, publishing its own apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry.

However, its getting awfully crowded again in the social video sharing space these days, with companies like the Justin.tv spin-off and social video network Socialcam,and new start-ups like Tout trying awfully familiar sounding ideas.

The biggest test for Twitvid may be how it can adapt to Twitters own increasingly aggressive media plans. Not only did the relaunched Twitter web site incorporate more video, Twitter also teamed up with Photobucket in June to power its own image hosting. One has to wonder when Twitter will extend this kind of partnership to video clips as well, and what this would do to startups like Twitvid.

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