Video Distribution Startups Funded: iWidgets, Mixpo

iWidgets, a social network syndication service that has CBS as its first customer, just raised $4.1 million in Series A funding from Opus Capital and University Venture Fund.

This is the round we mentioned in an earlier post, which had been in the works for a while but was apparently delayed by the economy tanking this fall. The tiny San Francisco-based company has made a web-based platform that spits out customized applications for Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle and others.

CEO Peter Yared told us he’s especially focused on syndicating video because video publishers need better distribution and consumers are willing to sit through video ads.

Also today, local video ad platform Mixpo announced a $4 million Series B round of funding from Madrona Venture Group, GrowthWorks Capital and Yaletown Venture Partners. This was a down round for Seattle-based Mixpo, which raised $6.5 million from the same three firms in 2006.

Meanwhile, local video ads competitor Jivox announced an affiliate program that lets larger publishers white-label its service and smaller publishers get paid for referring advertisers. In an email, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company named Mixpo as the competitor it was directly targeting with the move.