Zlango Raises Big Buttloads of Money

Or, as they say in Zlangese,

Benchmark and Accel have invested $12M in Zlango, a company which has developed a unique picture-based language for sending messages over mobile. The "glick" is that Zlango is an actual language, albeit a rudimentary one, rather than just sending a message in picture code. (You can read the company's announcement, in Zlango, here).

Zlango's value proposition is more or less obvious to your average 12-year-old, and decreasingly so the farther away you get from that age. We saw the company almost a year and a half ago, back in their early days. At the time we weren't really set up to deal with this type of investment and took a pass on it. Which is unfortunate, because I think the product is going to be a big success.

Having said that, I did get some sticker shock when I saw the size of the round. Obviously, this is the kind of play that requires big-time marketing. Even more so considering that it is a cellular application. But still, $12M is an awful lot.

The comments section in the Tech Cruch article are fairly instructive, split up fairly evenly between those who get the value prop, those who don't (presumably, no 12-year-olds there), and those complaining about inflated company valuations.

Anyways, congratulations Yoav and company. Now you should get your graphics guys to come up with a Zlango word for "bubble".