I’m not the only one who was impressed by Sprout, a browser-based tool for creating interactive widgets in Flash that debuted in February.
The Honolulu and San Francisco-based startup has collected $5 million in venture funding to fuel its operations. Polaris Venture Partners led the round, with previous investors Global Venture Capital and Mitch Kapor participating. Mike Hirshland of Polaris will join Sprout’s board of directors.
Sprout is notable for the power it gives non-techies to design impressive pieces of distributable content, which can be used primarily for viral marketing campaigns. These pieces, called “sprouts”, are like mini-websites in that they can contain pages with elements you’d find on regular webpages: text, links, graphics, video, audio, and even interactive components like polls and maps.
In April, Sprout announced an SDK that could be used by 3rd party developers to integrate functionality into the Sprout creation tool, thereby turning it into a platform of sorts.
The company has, of course, created a sprout to mark its funding announcement. We’ve embedded it below.
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For a post on why we decided to invest in Sprout, go here:
http://vcmike.wordpress.com/20.....ng-sprout/
Mike, I don’t think the sprout on your blog is working. There is nothing below “For a little more color, I have embedded in the post below a sprout on this funding announcement.” for me.
so, somebody has to ask: why Flash?
@James: thanks for pointing this out. If you are viewing the permalink to my post, there is no “below.”
I think I have fixed it now.
Wrong link?
“I’m not the only one who was impressed by Sprout” <– weird website
Congratulations Sprout! {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/lWCZpJZS3j_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Congratulations Sprout! ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/76PRsJwcqo”}}}
Sprout is without a doubt the most advanced flash widget creation platform out there, the only thing more advanced is the flash program itself!
Mark, Quick Correction:
I believe the site url is: sproutbuilder [dot] com
Not sprout [dot] com
Perhaps they need to buy it though.
I’ve used both Sprout and Wix and they’re both great. How easy it is to create ‘living widgets’ and mashing in services is amazing. Two things I like about Wix is that created content is ’search engine friendly’ and the canvas is more wide open. If Sprout does this it will be unstoppable.
Congratulations to the team at Sprout. They’re changing the web.
Thanks,
Jaafer
The correct URL is http://sproutbuilder.com/
Hey,
I have been using SproutBuilder and Wix.com for a while
Wix appear simpler to use and SEO friendly
does anybody know if they raised money as well?
Cheers,
Marco
I’m a big sprout fan having done lots of Flash OLA and widgets. For certain applications its a huge advantage, its all about ‘go to market’ these days
Congrats to the Sprout team! Sprout totally rocks. Check out Jack Johnson’s Sprout at http://www.kokuahawaiifoundation.org/resolutions/ for an example of dynamic content via Sprout.
Congratulations to Sprout!
I have been using Sprout for a while now. Polaris venture partners made a good move.
Check out my personal sprout I am toying with that includes a few of the new features like the Seesmic video, Google form, Twitter, and Ribbit call button. If anyone wants to help me test it out try hitting the contact form and the call button
http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/AQBJcCiMBSRWsr19
Carnet, and all of the Sprout team - congrats!
We really like what you’re doing and hope to see a lot more coming,
Cheers,
Eran
Kudos - very nice app
Mahalo (Thanks!) for all the great thoughts about Sprout. I really hope we can build a killer product that solves everyone’s problems in creating rich interactive content. We want Sprout to be the platform for mashing up all online content and services.
aloha,
carnet