Toggle Closes Seed Round with Warner Bros. Investment

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Toggle, which makes a device that allows users to view programming from streaming content provider UltraViolet on their television sets, said it closed a seed round of funding last month. It was also among the second class of graduates of Warner Bros.’ Media Camp accelerator.

Warner Bros., the studio behind the Burbank accelerator program that supports media tech startups, led the investment by matching the amount Toggle had raised through other investors. The West Hollywood company declined to disclose the total seed investment.

This wasn’t Toggle Chief Executive Adam Johnson’s first time at Media Camp. He also participated in the accelerator’s first class last year as chief operating officer of Kumbuya, a Chicago startup that brings together people with similar interests so they can share content and sell products to each other.

After Kumbuya completed the 12-week program, Johnson began to question why media consumers continued to rely on brands that were favored out of habit, like iTunes, even though they limited users’ abilities to share their purchased content across platforms. That’s why Johnson decided Toggle would stream video through UltraViolet, a cloud-based library that offers up-to-date movies and TV shows to its more than 17 million registered accounts.

“From a startup standpoint, it was something where I could come up with a solution that offers strategic value to big businesses,” Johnson said.

Johnson said Toggle expects a full market launch of its moderately priced $20 to $45 dongle for the upcoming holiday season and that the company is already coordinating a Series A round.

Staff reporter Melissah Yang can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MelissahYang for the latest in L.A. tech news.

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