California: California based mobile publishing company 955 Dreams has raised $3.25 million in its seed round of funding from 500 Startups, m8 Capital, Kapor Capital, Felicis Ventures, and CrunchFund. As part of the investment, Dave McClure of 500 Startups would be joining the company’s board. It plans to use the funds on its publishing platform and expand its product range, expand onto other mobile operating systems, and expand its global footprint. The company intends to improve the base platform and focus on distribution on iOS this year and possibly experiment with other platforms.

“With Mitch Kapor of Kapor Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups we found investors who have believed in our vision for beautiful emotive products on mobile devices. In this round we also added m8 Capital (Joseph Kim) from London, a mobile only fund and Felicis Ventures (Aydin Senkut, Sundeep Sanchoo). We might add more traditional large fund VCs in our Series A which we're considering in the next few months,” says Kiran Bellubbi, Founder & CEO, 955 Dreams.

The company is a next-generation publishing company, which focuses on bringing the mobile technology to the media industry. It has created magazines which can be viewed by customers on their mobile phones.  It was co-founded in 2010 by Bellubbi and T.J. Zark and has 10 employees. Bellubbi had previously founded High Five Labs. He was a Product Manager at Runa, Jedi Master at ThoughtWorks, Senior Technical Analyst at Sapient ,and a Developer at PicoPeta Simputers.

Since its launch, the company has released three music themed apps: Band of the Day, The History of Jazz, and On the Way to Woodstock, all of which grabbed Apple’s ‘App of the Week’; while the Band of the Day app won the iPhone ‘App of the Year Runner-Up’.  The app suggests new artists, with full-length songs, biographies, reviews, interviews and video footage, along with a social sharing option.

500 Startups is a seed fund and startup accelerator program which focuses on helping startups succeed through design, data, and distribution. It invests primarily in consumer and SMB internet startups, and related to web infrastructure services. Typically its initial investment size ranges between $25,0000 to $250,000.

m8 Capital is a VC firm which invests in mobile technology. It acquires interest in mobile technology, which are positioned for leadership in key segments of the mobile industry. Its portfolio companies include Masabi, Aylys Networks, Rummble, and others.

CrunchFund is an early stage VC firm which invests and works with information technology companies across stages. Its primary focus is on seed and early stage companies.

Felicis Ventures is an angel investment fund with focus on early stage, consumer internet and mobile startups. Its portfolio companies include Zaarly, Shopify, Piazza, Inkling, Wheelz, Rovio, and many others.

Kapor Capital invests in seed and early stage startups. It is particularly interested in new platforms and in the use of information technology to achieve those goals. Its portfolio companies include CardMunch, (acquired by LinkedIn), Blockboard, bit.ly, BeCouply, Color P.I, Coffee and Power, ePals, Fidelis, DropCam, and many others.