ZapStreak – Enrich the TV experience with your mobile apps

Have you ever wanted to beam media content such as photos, video and music from your Android phone/tablet to your TV? When it comes to TV interaction, the iOS users have the advantage. The Apple devices support AirPlay, Apple’s proprietary protocol stack, to stream media content from mobile devices to Apple TV and other entertainment devices. So far, Android lacked that ability. But, one startup from Poznan, Poland looks to disrupt that market.

Zapstreak is the brainchild of Polish founders Mateusz Rutkowski, Patryk Zabicki and Stefan Bielau who came together in 2011 to build a startup that is “dedicated to changing and enriching the TV experience at home.” The startup is one among the 19 startups to make it to the TNW’s startup rally and has received a $150K seed fund from the Poland based VC firm, Speedup Group.

The company provides a mobile SDK for developers to write apps, that can enable streaming of media content to DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant consumer devices. The main differentiator is that there is no dedicated hardware required to work this and it saves developers from putting a lot of effort on writing the streaming applications from scratch. We believe this could create a spurt in the number of media apps for Android. The startup sells the apps on a subscription model and also hopes to make money by selling data to consumer device makers.

The market leader in this space is the AirPlay protocol suite for Apple devices. For Android, startups such as valley based Double Twist are working on similar concepts, while OEM’s such as Samsung and HTC are also bringing native solutions in the form of SwipeIt and MirrorMode, respectively. However, no one has cracked the market yet as the integration is still not as smooth as it is for the Apple devices. Also, unlike the other startups in this space, Zapstreak aims to create a platform for media play, instead of merely creating a streaming app. The company is still in its very early stages, but we believe it has got the right start.