Comprimato has raised investment in a venture round.

Comprimato, an IT spin-out of Cesnet, has secured €1m in a venture round. The round included existing investors Credo Ventures, a Czech early stage investor, and Y Soft Venture Capital, the investment arm of the eponymous Czech print software and hardware company.

Credo and Y Soft previously participated in Comprimato’s €200,000 ($250,000) seed round in 2013.

Comprimato was spun out of Prague-based research institute Cesnet with the goal of commercialising technology that allows JPEG2000 (JP2) compression ten times faster than other available software. JP2 is an improved version of the commonly used JPEG codec, but despite being released in 2000 it lost out to a different codec, PNG, and remains unsupported in all but one modern day browser – Apple’ Safari, though only through an additional plugin. Comprimato has however identified a use for the format in Ultra HD, and its clients include Stanford University.

Cesnet was set up in 1996 as an umbrella organisation for all Czech universities and the Czech Academy of Sciences. Its focus is on research and development of advanced network technologies and applications.

Jan Gruntorad, association director at Cesnet, commented on the spin-out following its 2013 seed round: “The Comprimato project represents another acknowledgment of quality of Cesnet Association research work that repeatedly receives a feedback also from business market environment. It is clear that systematic challenging research is a right way to enhance the competitiveness of our country.”