NICTA spin-out incoming

Australia-based IT research organisation NICTA has spun-out a mobile video startup firm Incoming with $1.1m seed financing from IT firm Citrix and OneVentures.

NICTA, formerly National ICT Australia, is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence. It is funded and supported by the country’s government and several Australian universities, including: the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian Governments, the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University.  

Incoming marks the 11^th spin-out for NICTA. The startup provides TV content delivered via Wi-Fi, and preloads its content as opposed to streaming and buffering. The beta release of Incoming’s mobile app has already attracted 600k users.

David McKeague, chief executive of Incoming, said: “Incoming allows mobile networks to be used more efficiently in off peak periods and enhances the user’s experience by avoiding buffering and other interruptions common to streamed content. The mobile industry estimates that over 20% of subscribers watch mobile videos on any given day, accounting for over 50% of global mobile data traffic on wireless networks. This is costly for users, carriers and content providers. The Incoming TV service addresses this by pre-loading content using Wi-Fi networks.”

The firm will also be joining Citrix’s Startup Accelerator.

Micheal Harries, chief technology officer of the accelerator, said: “Incoming’s technology is compelling and complementary to Citrix offerings. Citrix Startup Accelerator invests in only the best entrepreneurs and new businesses creating new solutions for today’s problems in cloud infrastructure and mobile. We look forward to working with Incoming as they build a world class business.”