Google Ventures and Hearst Interactive Media make whoopie to @gomiso

Looky looky what just popped up in my twitter feed ...

Per Miso Blog: We’re thrilled to announce some amazing developments here at Miso.

• Google and Hearst Invest in Miso.  We are excited to announce that right at the end of 2010, we closed our Series A round, raising an additional $1.5M. The round was led by Google Ventures with Hearst Interactive Media also participating.  With this money, we plan to hire more engineers which will allow us to continue to innovate, build Miso, and improve our second screen platform.  While the last year was focused on building a ‘check-in’ foundation, in 2011, we will create more ways for people to engage around the second screen, secure more partnerships, and lead innovation around the intersection of social, TV, and the second screen.  We are 100% focused on making TV watching better by making it more social, more useful, and more fun.  In addition to the financing, Joe Kraus from Google Ventures and Scott Wolfgang from Hearst Interactive Media will be joining our board.  Joe, a Silicon Valley veteran, has been with us since our seed round and has been paramount in helping us to where we are today.  We’re excited to welcome Scott and Hearst Interactive Media to the Miso family.  Hearst, with its extensive media holdings, including ESPN, Lifetime Television, A&E Network, History and 29 local television stations, is certain to be a valuable partner for Miso to gain a deeper understanding of how we can provide more value to TV networks and TV content creators in addition to building a world-class second screen platform.

• Approaching 100K registered users & over 2M engagements. 2010 has been an exciting year for us.  In nine months, we have built presences on the iPhone, Android, iPad, and web and are quickly approaching 100K registered users with over 2M engagements to date.  In the last thirty days, we have seen over 400K engagements averaging about an engagement (including check-ins, comments, and ‘likes’) every 4 to 5 seconds.   We have a lot more to do to make Miso simpler, more social, and more fun, so look out for more in the coming months.  We are not even 1% of where we want to be.

• Introduction of Miso API. We have received hundreds of requests to create a Miso API, and it’s finally here!  With the the API, TV sites, TV manufacturers, set top boxes, or any developer can access Miso in the same way our applications work today.  Developers can develop new apps, integrate ‘check-in’ functionality into their own apps, and much more.  Widgets and RSS feeds will be coming soon as well!

• First partnership of 2011 with OWN. In 2010, we have delivered over a dozen network partnerships, and we are extremely excited to start 2011 by teaming up with OWN: the new Oprah Winfrey Network for a new reality series where ten contestants compete to get their very own show. Watch the premiere of Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star on Friday at 9/8c on OWN to earn exclusive badges from Miso!

With CES starting tomorrow, new tablets being introduced, and new innovations on top of the TV, the opportunity to build an amazing second screen is now.  TVs are becoming internet enabled.  New guides, new remotes, more tablets – 2011 is the year we’ll see an incredible amount of innovation in the living room, and we are excited to be part of that revolution.

I wanted to personally thank the Miso community for being with us since day one and continuing to push us to think outside the box.  We have a lot more coming — some ideas might take off and some might fail — but we are maniacally focused on building something that will make TV watching better.  Stay tuned – no pun intended!

Somrat Niyogi
CEO
@sniyogi



DUDE! So awesomeeeeeee!! I'm SO fascinated by the social TV components of social media. Clearly, since TNTML is totally like got a pilot thang goin on! It's just SUCH an open market since no loyalties in the nerdy community have been established. TV's days as a one way medium are numbered. For really reals reals. Don't get me wrong, you're still going to want to zone out and watch regular TV to fall asleep and such ... there is still DEFINITELY a market for that type of entertainment. What I am talking about is a completely separate need because of Facebook that has created this want and desire to interact, engage, and comment on things that we are experiencing. Think about it - when was the last time you watched TV and didn't have either your laptop on your lap, or your smartphone in your hand. It's nutty buddy!! Super super suppperrrr stoked! Congrats on your steps in the right direction Miso!

#nerdsunite