Smart TV app publisher Flingo has scored $7 million in a Series A funding round led by August Capital. The company said the money will be used to help it expand it device footprint--it's already available on smart TVs and devices from Samsung, LG, Vizio, Sanyo, Insignia, Western Digital and Netgear.
Perhaps more importantly, the funding will help Flingo refine its automatic content recognition infrastructure, which identifies thousands of broadcast network programs around the world in real-time. That means content providers and operators will be able to send contextually relevant content directly to the viewer's TV, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
As part of the funding deal, August Capital's David Marquardt, who's also a board member of Microsoft, and Howard Hartenbaum, a founding investor in Skype, will join Flingo's board of directors.
Flingo recently launched a Social TV framework that enables one-click sharing to Twitter and Facebook from broadcast TV. That feature will soon be available on a variety of A&E channels.
"Flingo has the potential to build a very large business enabling new experiences around broadcast television," said Marquardt. "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."
For more:
- see this release
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