More Social TV Investment: Flingo Secures $7 Million From August Capital

Posted by Richard Kastelein in Breaking News on February 08, 2012  |  0 Comments More from this author  |    |  Follow Richard Kastelein on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube

Flingo, the largest publisher of Smart TV apps and now entering into second screen Social TV space, has announced that it raised $7 million in Series A funding from August Capital. Flingo's Smart TV software seamlessly integrates streaming video, dynamic advertising and broadcast TV and is currently available on 7.8 million screens, in 118 countries worldwide. August Capital's David Marquardt, the sole venture investor and 30 year board member of Microsoft, and Howard Hartenbaum, a founding investor in Skype, will join Flingo's board of directors.

The funding will be used to expand Flingo's device footprint as well as its automatic content recognition (ACR) infrastructure, which identifies thousands of broadcast network programs around the world in real-time. Once identified, Flingo's SyncApps technology can immediately bring contextually relevant content directly to the viewer's TV, laptop, tablet or smart phone. Flingo recently announced that its Social TV framework enables one-click sharing to Twitter and Facebook from broadcast TV. The new framework will soon be available on A+E Networks' HISTORY and A&E channels. This means that you are never more than one-click from sharing with your friends what you're watching, and no longer have to search for hashtags, or the official Twitter account or Facebook page while watching TV. In addition to social features, broadcasters can make their programming more interactive using the SyncApps platform.

"Flingo has the potential to build a very large business enabling new experiences around broadcast television," said David Marquardt, co-founder of August Capital. "The company already has gained strong traction with the top names in TV programming, consumer electronics, and digital media. We're excited to be a part of the team."

Flingo enables an ecosystem where media companies, artists and brand sponsors converge on consumer hardware platforms to give viewers a more engaging and personal TV experience. Flingo is available on smart TVs and devices from leading manufacturers including Samsung, LG, Vizio, Sanyo, Insignia, Western Digital, and Netgear.

"Our new investors share our vision that Smart TVs represent a unique way to improve the TV viewing experience and an opportunity to unlock new sources of growth in the $60 billion TV advertising business. August Capital's involvement brings experience, relationships and resources to us, and we are honored to have David and Howard involved with our company," said Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder of Flingo.