HEAVY.com Closes $20 Million Financing

Never heard of Heavy.com before this morning. They certainly have a very interesting way of showing ads within the Flash player. Polaris Venture Partners has increased its funding of Heavy.com from $10 million to $20 million.

Heavy describes themselves as, "Heavy combines its own unique programming with those of its users to create an environment where you can control and even participate in your own media experience. Heavy empowers its audience to share, editorialize, and create their own content as well as provide its own library of programming."

From the release:

"2006 was a wonderful year for Heavy. Visitors to the site more than doubled and we grew our ad sales and management team, resulting in a 350% revenue increase," said David Carson, co-CEO of Heavy. "Our goal was to prove our advertising revenue model before expanding into new territories and markets, we're now well positioned to expand with confidence and surpass those numbers in 2007. This investment enables us to do so quickly."

"Heavy has clearly established itself as one of the few online video sites able to both attract a very large audience while also building a substantial advertising business," said Mike Hirshland, partner of Polaris Venture Partners. "Heavy is building a true 21st century media company which combines internally developed content with great consumer generated content and with a sustainable revenue model. As advertisers expand their online video budgets in 2007, they are looking to work with the few online brands that can effectively deliver audience in scale. Heavy is ideally positioned to secure a place as an important player in the emerging media landscape. We are excited to partner with the Heavy team to help build this business."

Have a look at Heavy.com even if it is only to see how they use ads. Worth a look as it appears a bit innovative, albeit overwhelming with the number of ads they use.