Starduck Studios Raises €400k Angel Round for Development of Intoloop Kids

Starduck Studios, a software startup from Tampere, has closed its second round of funding: €400k from a group of 8 angel investors including Pitkäjärvi Capital, Hannu Jyrkkä, JanDing, Jussi Lahdenniemi and Gowda Capital. The company raised its first angel round of €250k in February 2010, and all first-round participants invested in the second round. The funding will be used for international expansion and to further develop Intoloop Kids, an online service where parents can securely share pictures and stories of their children with friends and relatives. Henri Liljeroos, the CEO and co-founder of Starduck Studios, says the company started negotiations with investors almost a year ago, and that the new funds allow them to focus completely on product development and growth.

Intoloop Kids is a social networking website and mobile service that provides an easy and secure way for parents to capture and share stories and pictures of their children. Currently users are able to upload and share photos and stories, and Starduck Studios plans to add support  for video sharing, photo books and themes in the near future. A mobile application for multiple platforms is also being developed. The service is available in Finnish, English and Japanese. According to Arcticstartup, Intoloop is looking to enter the French and US markets with plans to acquire public funding from Tekes.

Starduck Studios began developing Intoloop Kids in September 2009, and the service was in private beta during summer 2010. The first public demo was held in October 2010 at the MindTrek media and business conference in Tampere, where Intoloop won the MindTrek LaunchPad audience vote award. The site was launched to the public on April 15 2011 at the Child Fair held at Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre.

Starduck’s investors have extensive industry experience in software development, online solutions and mobile platform development. Hannu Jyrkkä and Jussi Lahdenniemi are connected to Sasken Finland, a subsidiary to Sasken Communication Technologies. Sasken offers embedded communications solutions including R&D, consulting, wireless software products and software services. Hannu Jyrkkä is Sasken Finland’s current CEO, and Jussi Lahdenniemi worked at the company for over 11 years before launching Aprikoodi in 2009. He most recently held the position of Senior Software Architect.

Iiro Jantunen, who invests through JanDing, has an intimate knowledge of advanced mobile platforms having worked on research projects at VTT, Nokia, Aalto University and University of Eastern Finland. He also serves on the board of Pixpolar, an Espoo-based semiconductor company providing image sensor technology to camera and chip manufacturers.