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CardSpring, a company that creates mobile applications specifically for credit and debit cards, announced today it has raised $10 million in its first round of funding.
CardSpring has produced an Application Programming Interface (API) that developers can use to make online applications for your credit or debit card. Each time you swipe your card, the card’s information is sent over the payment network to process the purchase. CardSpring has created a link between that payment system and other online process, such as coupon redemption or loyalty programs so every swipe can do more than just complete a purchase.
“When we looked at the payment system, we realized that everyone had a different point of view on how to connect credit and debit cards to it,” CardSpring chief executive Eckart Walther told VentureBeat in a interview,”We built a platform that delivers a simple interface for developers to use to connect to the payment system.”
The types of apps that can be connected to cards is limited only by the developers’ imaginations. In CardSpring’s current platform, the first apps are likely to focus advertising and promotions. Developers will likely create apps that encourage patrons to review businesses after they make a purchase there or offer promotional discounts after a card is swiped.
While mobile discounts and loyalty apps have caught on in recent years, CardSpring eliminates the need for business specific smartphone apps, or even a smartphone at all. CardSpring bridges the gap between developers and the payment network — a system that is traditionally hard to access due to strong security measures. The API lets developers build apps quickly that access the payment network without compromising the security of your information.
“It’s a really new platform and we are working on building it up now,” said Walther, “We will use the funding for scaling the team and scaling the platform.”
CardSpring launched its private beta today, which developers can request access to on CardSpring’s website. The series A round announced today was led by Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, with participation from SV Angel, Morado Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and WIN. CardSpring is based in Palo Alto, California. less than 20
Filed under: deals 
“Who Wants A Stylus?”
– Steve Jobs, MacWorld 2007
As it turns out, plenty of people do. Not for navigating around the user interface, mind you — Steve (et al.) was absolutely right about that. But for the artists of the world looking to use the iPhone or iPad as their newfangled portable glass canvas, the stylus wins over the finger any day.
And yet, the myriad iPad styluses floating about generally lack something that artists have come to expect of their digital pens: pressure sensitivity. Dubbing itself “the world’s first pressure sensitive stylus for iPad”, a successfully Kickstarted project called “jaja” looks to change that.
And for that last bit of bonus flare: they’re trying to do it all without using WiFi or Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. So how does it communicate with the iPad? Sound.
As you probably know, the world is just full of sounds that we can’t hear. Generally speaking, the human ear can hear sounds between 20 and 20,000 Hz. According to the guys behind jaja, the iPad’s mic can pick up frequencies well beyond that, giving them a bit of space on the high-end to pass signals as sound without driving everyone around you crazy. (But what about the dogs? Won’t someone think of the dogs?!)
In addition to pressure sensitivity, the jaja will also have two built-in buttons meant to be used as hotkeys (for switching brushes, for example, or one-click undo/redo functionality.)
Of course, any iPad app you’re hoping to use this with (beyond the basic, non-pressure-sensitive stylus functionality) will need to pack support for jaja’s in-progress SDK. Your favorite drawing apps probably aren’t currently using the microphone for anything right now, much less for parsing out high-pitched whining.
One thing I’m left curious about: what about ambient sound? Take airplanes, for example. Without reliance on WiFi/Bluetooth, it’s noted that the jaja can be used safely on a plane. But plane engines generate an absurd amount of sound — much of that in the higher ranges. Might that cause interference?
Whatever the case, the jaja is well past its original $25,000 goal on Kickstarter, so the odds of it making it to the real world are pretty solid. $40 gets you one of the first 500 jajas, 471 of which have already been snatched up.
Backplane is the kind of place we think all the Facebook employees will flock to once it files its IPO.
The Lady Gaga-funded startup just came out of its super secretive mode with the launch of its beta site Little Monsters.
Still in beta, the site allows Lady Gaga to interact more intimately with her fans — and allows her fans to all talk to each other too.
Backplane hopes to give celebrities the chance to interact more intimately with fans then they could on Facebook or Twitter. The sites are also supposed to help fans create and share content.
Backplane-built social networks won't just be for celebrities. In the future, communities may also form around other interest groups – designers in Palo Alto, for example.
Co-founder Joey Primiani told us, “I'm all about starting this movement. I love technology and love good design. We definitely have an amazing opportunity here to have millions of users — the most amount of users per employee. We are going to be bigger than Facebook and Google some day.”
The company is so committed to its success that it has sleeping quarters so workers never have to leave — Primiani wants people to work, sleep, and play here, and said he crashes here twice a week.
We talked to Primiani and his cofounder Alex Moore about their plans for the site. Check out the video here:
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In “Microwaves Ruin Everything,” a microwave oven destroys a variety of items, from a watermelon to a bottle of champagne. The video is an ad for Moe’s Southwest Grill. As the ad helpfully warns, do not try this at home “especially if you like to see, smell, hear, touch, talk and breathe.”
via Geekologie