Api.video, a French startup providing an API-based video platform, has raised $5.5 million to help companies keep up with consumer demand for video content. The seed round was led by London’s Blossom Capital and joined by Kima Ventures.

The platform allows developers to build transactional video communications at scale — meaning hotel reviews, dating sites and online marketplaces could more easily switch to video content rather than plain text or photos. The software also enables institutions like universities to adopt live streaming and other e-learning methods. In a press release, the startup explains that its approach “works by abstracting the often messy, multi-step processes of modern video into an API that offers transcoding, hosting, delivery and analytics in a single package”.

CEO Cédric Montet, who founded the company last year, explains, “Anyone can be a director, anyone can share video and people watch these videos from anywhere in the world. This represents a huge opportunity for companies, but also a headache for developers. Particularly on platforms where these companies want or need to integrate video but where video is not a core part of their business.”

The fresh funding will help the startup grow its team internationally and enter new markets, as it pursues its technology goal of ultra-low latency streaming.