RipCode has announced $12.5 million in financing to fuel the global launch of its next-generation mobile video delivery service.

New investor Granite Ventures led the round alongside existing investors Hunt Ventures, El Dorado Ventures, Vesbridge Partners and ATA Ventures. RipCode plans to use this funding to expand sales, marketing and product development of its next-generation media conversion technology.

"The funding will further the company's long-term strategy to create ubiquitous video viewing, regardless of platform or device," said Brendon Mills, president/CEO of RipCode, Dallas, TX.

"Early adopters are embracing RipCode's on-demand and live video transcoding appliances to quickly and economically reach a wider audience with professionally-generated and user-generated video," he said.

RipCode's patent-pending on-demand and real-time stream transcoding technologies are designed to optimize end-user viewing experience, significantly reduce operational cost and enable expanded monetization opportunities for content providers and network operators.

According to a 2007 Research and Markets report, the U.S. market for paid mobile video services is forecasted to grow from $180 million in 2006 to $10.2 billion in 2012.

The total transactional revenue opportunity for global web and mobile Internet video services - across premium, short form informational, and reference content - expands RipCode's opportunity even further.

Last month, RipCode and MySpace announced the launch of a global mobile video initiative with MySpace Mobile, which relies on RipCode's on-demand video transcoding to let MySpace Mobile users view MySpace video content from many of the most popular video-enabled mobile devices.

Because MySpace uses RipCode's technology to transcode video on demand, the premier lifestyle portal eliminates the need to store the extensive MySpace video library in multiple mobile formats, which saves significant hardware, energy and storage resources.

The company also recently announced the availability of on-demand video transcoding for the most popular video-enabled phones, including the Apple iPhone, T-Mobile G1, RIM BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm.

"RipCode plans to leverage this capital infusion to expand sales, marketing and product development of its next-generation media conversion technology, which is gaining worldwide momentum for easing the delivery of quality video across all types of Web distribution platforms and mobile devices," Mr. Mills said.

"This additional funding will support the continuing development of current and future video delivery innovations enabling RipCode customers to provide video content to consumers of all types - when they want it, and on whatever device they wish whether mobile, desktop, or large screen TV," he said.