Sina among investors in $25 million funding for Chinese makers of Vplayer

Chinese video app startup Xuanyixia has clinched $25 million in series B funding to help develop its mobile apps and services. The money comes from Chinese web titan Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) – best known for Sina Weibo – as well as Redpoint Ventures, Morningside Ventures, and some other undisclosed investors. Jane Sun, the product manager at the startup, tells us they received the money last week. The Beijing-based team – which now employs just over 30 – is no stranger to Sina, having created the Sina Paike video app for the huge web company. The startup’s most visible product around the world is Vplayer, the popular and flexible video playing app for iPhone and Android. For Chinese netizens, the startup also makes Miaopai, a Vine-like app that’s a revamped version of the Yixia video app that we looked at in 2011 (but which failed to catch on). Less visible is Xuanyixia’s multimedia framework service that’s a hardware accelerated video decoder and renderer for iOS and Android. That’s called Vitamio, and is used to power videos on a number of Chinese sites, including Sina, Ku6, and Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. (Editing by Paul Bischoff)