4 Million Users Strong And Apple Design Award In Hand, Pulse Grabs $9 Million Series A

Apple doesn’t hand out a lot of design awards. When they do, it’s a pretty clear indication of the apps they feel best showcase their platforms. This year at WWDC, one of the winners was Pulse, the visual news-reading app created by Alphonso Labs. And Apple isn’t the only one taking notice of the app, so are investors.

New Enterprise Associates, Greycroft Partners, and Lerer Ventures have just poured $9 million into Pulse. As you might imagine, the nice-sized Series A will help the small team grow and continue to push towards creating the perfect news reading apps for modern devices. NEA’s Patrick Chung will join Pulse’s board, and Greycroft Managing Director Alan Patricof and Lerer Ventures Manager (and Huffington Post co-founder) Ken Lerer will serve as advisors to the company.

While it first launched on the iPad and got some nice early traction (and mentions on stage by Apple during events), Pulse is now available on the iPhone and Android devices as well. With the new money, the team will be looking at other platforms too. Presumably, things like webOS for the new HP tablets coming out.

Pulse also recently passed 4 million total users across all the devices they’re currently available on. And a couple weeks ago, they launched a new way to save stories for later reading, Pulse.me.

With the new money, they’re just shy of $10 million in total funding.