Whirlscape types out seed round

University of Toronto spin-out Whirlscape, which is developing a touchscreen keyboard for mobile devices, has received $500,000 in seed investment.

Incubator Y Combinator, venture firms FundersClub and BDC Venture Capital, and a number of angel investors contributed the round. Whirlscape is currently participating in Y Combinator’s accelerator programme, and also passed through UTEST, an incubator jointly managed by the University of Toronto and commercialisation firm MaRS Innovation.

The start-up is developing an app which Whirlscape describes as the “little keyboard for big fingers”. The app, called Minuum Keyboard, is already available for Android devices on Google Play. It has also been demonstrated on smart device developer Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch, and Whirlscape is developing typing software for other smart watches and Google Glass.

Will Walmsley, chief executive of Whirlscape, said: “Our vision for the future of hyper-personalized input devices involves letting you choose your companion device for its input capabilities. By simplifying the concept of the keyboard, we allow text entry to occur in places where it was previously unthinkable, removing barriers to communication. Your keyboard can now be anywhere you want it to be, out of the way, yet immediately accessible.”