Philo (company)

Philo
Founded 2009 (2009)
Headquarters San Francisco, CA, USA
Founder(s)
  • Nick Krasney
  • Tuan Ho
Key people Andrew McCollum (CEO)
Industry Internet television
Services live TV through the web
Employees 28[1]
Slogan(s) Turn on the future of TV
Website https://www.philo.com

Philo (formerly Tivli)[2] is an internet television company currently based in San Francisco, California. The service first launched at Harvard University in 2009. Investors in the company include HBO, Facebook co-founder, Andrew McCollum, and Mark Cuban.

History

Philo was founded in 2009 by then Harvard seniors Nicholas Krasney and Tuan Ho. It began as an experiment using aluminium foil as a makeshift satellite dish in order to "pick up TV signals and deliver them wirelessly to their laptops via a jerry-rigged server".[3] At its launch, the project was intended to be a way to circumvent the fact that Harvard did not provide cable TV service for its students. When the service way made available to others in 2011, half of the Harvard resident population registered for it within the first few weeks of the offer.[4]

In 2009 Philo, as Tivli, first incubated in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Harvard Innovation Lab (iLab) before moving to Harvard Square in 2013. After securing their Series B round, Philo moved again in 2015 to San Francisco, California.[5]

In July, 2013, the venture raised a $6.3 million round led by venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Among the Series A investors, were Mark Cuban from Radical Investments LP, HBO, Rho Ventures and Hugo Van Vuuren from Experiment Fund.[6][7] The same year the company was rebranded as Philo, from its former name, Tivli.[8][9]

In June 2015, Philo raised $10 million in a Series B round led by National Education Association, with joint investment from HBO, Rho Ventures, Xfund, CBC New Media Group, as well as Andrew McCollum.[10] McCollum, a founding member of Facebook, became CEO of the company in 2014.[11][12] As of September 2015, the service was available in 42 universities .[13]

Philo is expected to complete the integration of streaming service, HBO Go by January 2017.[14]

Recognition

References

  1. ↑ Sara, Castellanos (15 June 2016). "TV startup led by Facebook co-founder to move to San Francisco". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  2. ↑ Roettgers, Janko (September 20, 2013). "Meet the newest cord cutters: college campuses". Gigaom. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Company Profile: Philo". Fast Company. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "Start-Up Puts Streaming TV on Campus". The New York Times. 27 January 2013.
  5. ↑ "TV startup led by Facebook co-founder to move to San Francisco". Boston Business Journal. 15 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Moore, Galen. "Tonight on Campus TV: Comcast Vs. Mark Cuban, HBO and a Startup Called Philo". BostInno. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  7. ↑ Robbins, Max. "If Facebook and Hulu had a Baby it Would Look Like Philo". Forbes. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  8. ↑ "On-Campus Streaming TV Provider Tivli Rebrands as Philo, Adds Cloud DVR - WSJ". wsj.com. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  9. ↑ "Tivli renamed Philo, adds DVR service". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  10. ↑ Bookman, Samantha. "Philo leads traditional TV toward campus cord-cutters, and maybe OTT's future". Fierce Cable. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  11. ↑ "Facebook founding member named CEO of Internet TV startup Philo". Boston Business Journal. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  12. ↑ "Philo Raises $10 Million From NEA, HBO & Others For Its On-Campus Internet TV Service". Tech Crunch. 15 July 2015.
  13. ↑ "Philo Tunes in More Than 40 Universities | Multichannel". multichannel.com. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  14. ↑ Wang, Sarah (8 December 2016). "U. to add HBO, HBOGO to Philo television service". The Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  15. ↑ "Most Innovative Companies of 2014". Fast Company. Retrieved 13 December 2016.

Further reading

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