Verdane portfolio company Octoshape acquired by Akamai

”It is a great pleasure to see a small Nordic technology innovator enable new consumer behavior and become a global player in the rapidly growing over-the-top video streaming market”, said Atle H. Søvik, Partner at Verdane Capital Advisors. ”We at Verdane are very happy that Octoshape’ s team and technology have found their natural place to develop to the next stage.” Verdane funds were major shareholders of the company.

“By joining forces with Akamai, we believe our joint customers will benefit from unsurpassed quality and reach,” said Michael Koehn, CEO of Octoshape.  “Combining Akamai’s industry-leading content distribution network with Octoshape’s video optimization technologies is intended to help businesses supercharge their online services to meet consumer demand. The Octoshape team is proud of the technology it has built over the years, and looks forward to evolving that technology to the next level with Akamai.”

Video streaming and downloads are consuming currently 68 percent of all Internet bandwidth globally and is predicted to grow to 80 percent within next few coming years. The rapid changes in consumer behavior where more and more video content is browsed with tablets, smartphones and other internet connected devices is challenging mobile operators and internet services providers in matching the user demand of flow less HD video experience.

The patented Octoshape Infinite technology optimizes the transport of video through the Internet. It is built to increase the quality and stability of video and also provides significant advantages by reducing the amount of video traffic over the Internet.  For consumers this means the highest quality video experience in the market, while helping the Internet handle the huge increase in Internet delivered video traffic.

Octoshape, a private company with over 40 employees, was established in 2003.  Under terms of the acquisition agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding equity of Octoshape in a cash transaction. Octoshape is another concrete example of Nordic start-up market becoming a vital part of the global tech startup environment.