British Sky Broadcasting Group (called BSkyB) has made a $350,000 investment in Jaunt, an early-stage startup that captures and displays 360 degree video content. BSkyB said that the new partnership will give it “additional insight into developments within the field.”
Though Palo Alto-based Jaunt’s placeholder site currently offers no information besides “stayed tune,” the company has been building its engineering team. Its current team already has an impressive pedigree and includes CEO Jens Christensen, who also launched Ellerdale (acquired by Flipboard in 2010); CTO Arthur van Hoff, who previously held the same position at Flipboard; and VP of engineering Tom Annau, whose resume includes a stint as a senior software engineering manager at Google.
Jaunt’s LinkedIn profile says its technology “combines computational photography, statistical algorithms, massively parallel processing, cutting-edge hardware and virtual reality.”
For Sky, Jaunt fits in with a series of investments it has made in video-related startups.
For example, back in May 2013, it invested $1.9 million in TV streaming platform Roku, one year after joining several other investors, including News Corporation, Menlo Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners, in a $45 million round.
Other investments include digital media platform 1 Mainstream, in a partnership that Sky said could expand its potential reach to 18 million international viewers, as well as social media specialist Zeebox, which Sky owns a 10% equity stake in.