Sharpcast, which I wrote about briefly after seeing their product at a recent conference, announced a big round of financing today - $13.5 million from Sigma Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Selby Venture Partners. The company is based in Palo Alto.
The product is a suite of consumer services that acts as a “uber-interpreter” across platforms (PC, mobile, etc.). Sign up to beta test their first product, Sharpcast Photos, on their website. If you have the time and are interested, read CEO Gibu Thomas’ post on Web 2.0 and why he created Sharpcast.
This round of funding signals that Sharpcast is in it for the long haul - no $30 million acquisition for them at this point. From what I’ve seen so far, they have real technology that can help bridge the gap between mobile and desktop applications.
Comments
This is why traditional VC is totally screwed for small companies. These aren’t the next Intel/Microsoft/Qualcomm/etc…
The odd part is that not all entrepreneurs realize it yet.
David, generally speaking I agree with you, although Sharpcast has some pretty advanced technology. It has a chance to go big time.
Wow, I can get photos from my phone to my PC now - its called email.
What technology! It’s nothing more than a file sync program with a little interface on top of it. http://www.vizrea.com already has this product and its not waiting to be release this spring! It’s ready and available now, and lots of other companies (phanfare.com for example) already offer a more advanced product (minus the treo interface which not too many people are going to care much about).
Sharpcast is the real deal.
Vizrea.com already has the same exact thing today, plus a lot more! Most photo sharing sites are a mere step away from adding an auto sync option.
One thing these guys miss is that they assume your computer is always going to be your master vault of all your photos or content! This is not always the case, I have lots of photos that I may upload to Flickr that I then delete from my own computer, because I either don’t want them or need them or don’t want to waste space. With sharpcast, they are mere offering a sync between your computer and the web, sort of what http://www.foldershare.com does right now for free.
I just discovered ShoZu.com a few days ago…it doesn’t do the bi-directional sync like Sharpcast, but for what it does (auto-publishing picture phone pics to Flickr/shutterfly/etc), it does it flawlessly. As soon as you take a photo, you have the option of sending the picture to flickr.com - one button click, and you’re done. Doesn’t get much easier than that.
I’m always amazed by the amounts of funding companies in the States get. Where does all this money go to? Is it transferred in their bankaccount as a whole? Do they really need that much money? At first sight the technology seems fairly simple and with a small team of 20 developers you can realise it easily. Or is there something I don’t get?
fotki.com offers direct email/MMS upload to online albums although they don’t advertise it to much (i think they should). it’s so damn cool.
I dont know if anyone has looked at http://www.pixsense.com. I was introduced to a person who works there. I have played with Shozu client, Vizrea client and others. PixSense has the best client. It does stuff like auto tags and auto categorization in its gallery. It doesnt sync yet from server to phone but I understand its coming. Whats more important, I was told they havent taken in a dime of investment money unlike the other companies and their beta was launched in February. Im not sure if they are looking for funding but it seems they could do allot w/ what the other companies have been funded at. They have an impressive team also.
Robert - thanks for this link - just love pixsense. I have had a camera phone for 3 years and I can finally use it!!!! Perfect usability.
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