ProtonMedia, a startup that develops virtual worlds technology, has raised $4.5 million in Series B venture financing led by Kaplan Ventures (the venture arm of the education company) with Originate Ventures and Osage Venture Partners participating. This brings ProtonMedia’s total funding to $7 million.
ProtonMedia develops ProtoSphere, a virtual world and collaboration tool for the enterprise. It’s like SecondLife meets Yammer or Jive. The software aims to bring together the people within an enterprise, in a 3D environment, to collaborate on spreadsheets, documents, images, presentations, web content, etc.
The new funding will be used to integrate ProtoSphere with Kaplan’s ComplianceWire, a cloud-based learning management system. As part of the financing, Kaplan will become a strategic reseller of ProtonMedia products to its customers. The new capital will also be used towards product development, and sales and marketing.
Competitors include Linden Lab, which also offers a virtual world for the enterprise.