PressPlane, a Seattle startup which incubated the mobile application Zapd, has raised a little more than $3 million from Madrona Venture Group, RealNetworks chairman Rob Glaser, Second Avenue Partners, PhotoDisc co-founder Tom Hughes and others. Zapd, which allows users to create Web sites in a matter of minutes, has recorded 320,000 downloads of its iPhone app since its launch in March.
“Essentially, the money is going to be used almost entirely for development,” CEO Kelly Smith tells GeekWire. “Zapd was a proof of concept that took off really well, and we were really pleased with the reception, and when it launched it didn’t have any viral features at all. Now, we can see that we are on to something here, and we basically want to put some fuel in the tank, and start enabling a lot more features.”
The company is looking at adding video and developing versions for Android and the iPad.
Kelly Smith said that 100 percent of the money will go to Zapd. (PressPlane is the parent company that oversees both Zapd and Inkd).
Glaser and Madrona’s Len Jordan have joined the board as a result of the investment. Interestingly, Smith notes that everyone who sits on the board — including investors Mike Slade and Mika Salmi — previously worked at RealNetworks in some capacity.
Editor’s note: Inkd, which is affiliated with is a partner of GeekWire.
