Austria: Schoenherr advises European Investment Bank on EGFF-financing transaction with Bitmovin

The EIB is providing financing of up to EUR 20 million to Bitmovin, an innovative developer of video streaming technology. The EU bank’s loan is backed by a guarantee from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe – the Juncker Plan – under which the EIB and the European Commission are working together as strategic partners and the EIB’s financing operations are boosting the competitiveness of the European economy.

The European Investment Bank is the lending arm of the European Union. It is the biggest multilateral financial institution in the world as well as one of the largest providers of climate finance. It helps the economy, creates jobs and promotes equality.

Bitmovin is a start-up founded in Austria and a leading provider of video infrastructure for online media companies around the world. The company has been at the forefront of all major developments in online video – from building the world’s first commercial adaptive streaming player to deploying the first software-defined encoding service that runs on any cloud provider or in a data centre. Bitmovin works with media companies across the globe to build innovative video products that deliver video to billions of consumers every day.

The Schoenherr team advising on this investment was led by Martin Ebner (partner, Vienna, banking, finance & capital markets) and Thomas Kulnigg (partner, Vienna, technology & digitalisation), and also consisted of Wolfgang Hellsberg (associate, Vienna, banking, finance & capital markets); Manuel Ritt-Huemer (attorney at law, Vienna, corporate/m&a); Maja Petrovic (attorney at law, Vienna, tax); and Marco Thorbauer (attorney at law, Vienna, tax). Duane Morris LLP's New York partner Nanette C. Heide and her team provided US law advice to EIB.

Bitmovin was advised by Herbst Kinsky and Cooley LLP.