Two of the venture business bigwigs - Sequoia Capital and Benchmark Capital - have backed a startup called Cotendo, helping it raise a $7 million second funding round for its content delivery network. The San Carlos, California-based company, with a large part of its R&D team in Israel, had earlier raised a first round of unrevealed amount from Sequoia.

Despite the content delivery sphere - which provides services to facilitate supply of videos and other content to website visitors - being dominated by reputed names like Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks, the credibility of Cotendo has been heightened by the backing of the two big venture capital firms.

Noting the somewhat stiff competition in Cotendo's area of operation, CEO Ronni Sehavi said that Cotendo aims at targeting mid-market companies that spend a yearly amount of between $100,000 and $500,000 on content delivery.

Sehavi also added that while the technology used by earlier players focuses on helping users bring video to their websites, the invasion of dynamism and interaction on the websites has made ample room for a CDN like Cotendo, which offers a much broader, "next generation" set of services.

Highlighting Cotendo's unparalleled flexibility and visibility, the company's VP marketing, Mike Sawyer, said: "We're among the first in the next wave of CDNs that are not just focusing on video but focusing on whole site delivery."