Chumby maker nets cutest Series B round ever

Chumby Industries, manufacturer of the eponymous huggable touch-screen Wi-Fi widget gadget, announced Monday that it has raised $12.5 million in Series B venture funding. The lead investor in the round was JK&B Capital, but existing investors Avalon Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures also contributed.

A friendly-looking device that you configure online, the Chumby cycles through a rotation of custom widgets from weather to Google Calendar to cult-hit shopping site Woot.com. Many of these come from the Chumby Network, a platform of user- and partner-created applications that can be added to the little gadgets.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET Networks)

It's also, aside from the touch screen, soft and squishy.

Formally, the new Chumby cash will be used to "accelerate growth of the company, and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based Internet connected devices." Does that mean they'll make a Chumby kitten or a Chumby penguin?

"We are pleased to receive this financing, which will enable us to execute our vision and grow distribution of the Chumby Network," Stephen Tomlin, founder and CEO of Chumby Industries, said in a statement. "As the next step of our strategy, we will focus on establishing relationships to broaden distribution to other screen-based devices such as digital photo frames and LCD TVs."

Oh. So much for the touch-screen penguins.

[KevinLeeC]

I was fortunate enough to be a beta tester for the Chumby and I've grown to love the device.

The best app is the ability to stream audio from the 'net.

[Kev50027]

My father got one for my mother, and after seeing it, I just had to have one for myself. A week later and I LOVE MY CHUMBY!! This device is truly the future. It's still a bit rough on the edges (not the fastest thing ever, and some little issues could use ironing out), but I am really enjoying my Chumby. I like the black one personally.