Swype announced that it raised an additional $2.5 million in Series C financing led by existing investors, including Samsung Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Benaroya Capital, DOCOMO Capital and Ignition Partners. With this new money and the existing $3.5 million raised in March with Ignition Partners, Swype’s total series C has hit $6 million. The plan is to use the new cash to enhance the growth with the goal of becoming the default keyboard for all touchscreen devices. Moreover, the idea is to go beyond phones and tablets, and eventually hit other platforms like game controllers, TVs and in-car display.
At the moment, Swype has 15 OEM partners on board and has been shipped on more than 50 million devices in the past 18 months in over 50 countries. By the end of this year, the popular text input software will be preloaded on over 100 million smartphones and tablets sold all around the world.
The company has grown to 80+ employees and recently opened three new offices in North Carolina, Massachusetts and South Korea.