app-friendly and connect to the Web, Adams says it is important for his company to react fast to clients’ needs.
Being nestled among the advertising companies in New York can’t hurt either, Adams says, to help prove that apps on television can increase audience engagement. “We need to be talking to ad networks,” he says. “The sector is uncertain on its return on investment.”
Accedo has raised $3.5 million primarily from Swedish venture capital firms Acacia and Industrifonden. Adams says the company is not currently seeking additional funds. “We’re growing organically, profitably, and doubling in size every year,” he says. The company has about 100 employees across all its offices, which include London, Hong Kong, Madrid, and Sydney.
Though it is early in the hiring process, Adams hopes the search for tech talent in the still growing New York ecosystem may be easier than it is in Silicon Valley. “You’ve got companies like Zynga hiring everything in sight,” he says. “New York might offer a better location for picking up [technical personnel].”
Accedo got its start building games and video infrastructure for telecos such as T-Mobile parent Deutchse Telekom to run on Internet protocol television networks. Adams says Accedo’s US-based operations develop applications that deliver content to smart TVs and connected devices for large media and entertainment entities in L.A. and New York. The company has developed apps for MTV, Vimeo, and CNBC, Adams says.
Developing apps for the television audience, Adams adds, is different from serving the mobile market. “People want to watch video when they look at a TV,” he says. “It turns out the killer app is video.” As obvious as that may sound, smart TV users crave apps that let them catch up on shows they missed or watch movies. “They are not really trying to use the OpenTable app [on their TVs] to figure out where to have dinner,” Adams says. “That is more of a mobile usage.”
The next wave of innovation for television, Adams predicts, will include the ability to ads to viewers in response to the content on screen. “Everybody is getting excited about the ability to target based on what someone is watching,” he says. That may even include competing ads. “If you’re watching a McDonald’s ad and we’re Burger King, we might offer you a coupon for Burger King,” Adams says.
