Swype Adds $6M

Seattle mobile-startup Swype, which makes input software for mobile devices, has closed a $6 million Series C financing round led by Ignition Partners and previous investors Samsung Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Benaroya Capital, Docomo Capital. Swype’s main product allows people using touchscreen devices like smartphones enter text by sliding their finger across the virtual keyboard, rather than tapping out each letter. The software can predict which letter you’re trying to type by analyzing the path your finger traces on the screen (it also has old-school tap mode). The financing brings Swype’s total fundraising to about $14 million. The company is a descendant of Tegic Communications—Swype’s Cliff Kushler was one of the inventors of Tegic’s T9 text-predicting software for feature phones. Others from the Tegic team went on to work at Nuance, after it acquired Tegic from AOL.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.