Desktop.com Secures $29M in First-Round Financing

Startup Web-based service Desktop.com, which provides a free
graphical interface and
application platform for the Internet, closed on $29 million in its first
round of financing.

Investors include Accel Partners; the executives of Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co.; and Sequoia Capital. Desktop.com will use
the funds to market and launch the Desktop.com service this fall.

Computer industry pioneer Mitch Kapor of Accel Partners will serve as a
director on the Desktop.com board. He was the founder and CEO of Lotus
Development Corp/ and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3.

“Accel Partners is honored to be part of the Desktop.com team and believes the
company is creating an innovative, powerful online experience that will
appeal to everyone on the Web,” said Kapor. “By wrapping this experience
around an open development platform, Desktop.com will empower the tens of
thousands of developers who want to share their creativity and expertise with
millions of Web users.”

From any net-connected PC running a standard Web browser, Desktop.com users
will be able to create and access their own customized Web desktop that
integrates the sites and services they use, the firm said. Desktop.com users will also be able to
select and use a number of next-generation Web applications built on the
Desktop.com platform — a
platform designed so that anyone can contribute an application.

Desktop.com’s founding team is composed of Katie Burke, Larry Drebes,
and Karen Drebes. Katie Burke and Larry Drebes were part of the original
team that invented and marketed Four11’s Web-based e-mail service RocketMail,
later purchased by Yahoo!.