Video conferencing and telepresence provider Vidyo has extended its fourth round of funding and attracted the attention of Juniper Networks. Vidyo has not disclosed the amount of investment, only saying that it has raised $97 million to date.  The company will use the new cash infusion to support its growth and integrate its products with Juniper’s platform.

You might not have heard about Vidyo, but the company founded in 2005 is attracting lots of attention from companies like Hewlett-Packard and Google. Vidyo now claims almost 2,000 customers for its 1080p HD quality video conferencing that can support up to 100 participants and show video for up to nine people simultaneously. Unlike many competitors, Vidyo allows HD video conferencing using a normal broadband connection instead of a MPLS link; the technology automatically adjusts to the amount of bandwidth available. In addition, customers can get a telepresence setup from Vidyo at a fraction of the cost of similar solutions from competitors like Cisco.

Technology companies pursuing new investment is not unusual, but some industry observers may be wondering why Juniper Networks, a company that produces high-speed networking equipment, has chosen to invest in Vidyo. The networking sector is growing increasingly competitive with Alcatel-Lucent entering the market and Cisco constantly introducing new products. It’s now more important than ever for networking providers to also offer value added services like video conferencing that integrate easily with the core platform.

Juniper Networks joined QuestMark Partners, Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Star Ventures, and Four Rivers Group as a strategic investor via its Junos Innovation Fund. The investment should put Juniper in a better position to compete with Cisco, which already has a long list of video offerings. In fact, it may give Juniper a slight advantage because Vidyo’s technology makes video conferencing accessible to a larger number of companies.