Intel leads new funding round for Trymedia

Trymedia Systems has announced that its 'B' funding round has been closed, with new investment for the digital distribution firm being secured from Intel's Digital Home fund as well as a number of individual investors.

The US-based company is the creator of the ActiveMARK digital distribution technology, which is employed for game distribution both online and on CDs and DVDs, and also operates the world's largest B2B portal for digital distribution.

The new investment comes primarily from the Intel Digital Home Fund, a $200 million initiative which was announced by the giant chip maker at the start of this year and focuses on investing in companies developing technologies to facilitate the growth of consumer digital content services and applications.

"Intel is committed to pursuing its vision of unifying computing and consumer electronics capabilities for the benefit of consumers," explained Intel Capital vice president Curt Nichols. "This investment is part of Intel Capital's strategy of building an ecosystem of complementary technologies that help drive demand for Intel's digital home solutions."

"Secure distribution technology, like Trymedia's, helps consumers easily and securely enjoy digitally downloaded games and software," he continued, "helping drive application usage for the digital home."

The investment comes only weeks after Trymedia announced the signing of a major deal with the world's second largest Internet service provider, AOL, which will see it providing digitally secured downloads over the AOL service.

"The investment from the Intel Digital Home Fund and others comes at a time when piracy and file-sharing issues have raised awareness for secure distribution solutions to an all-time high," according to Trymedia co-founder and CEO Alex Torrubia. "We plan to use these resources to help meet the explosive increase in demand for our solution by developing new verticals and territories."