Dash fills coffers for Web-connected car navigation

updated

Dash, the start-up offering the first car navigation device designed to be permanently linked to the Internet, has raised $25 million in a second round of funding.

The Mountain View Dash will launch its device in the Bay Area in late April, and nationally this fall, goes up against a host of other market incumbents, none aspiring to be as continuously connected to the Internet.

These other players are Garmin, TomTom and Magellan. Last week, Garmin released its own bluetooth gadget that turns your cellphone or PC into a naviation device.

Here’s our earlier coverage of Dash.

The round was led by Crescendo Ventures with new investors Artis Capital, ZenShin Capital Partners and Gold Hill Capital. Existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Skymoon Ventures also participated. Artis is the hedge fund with family connections with Sequoia Capital, and continues to benefit from that relationship. It is one of the few hedge funds that invests alongside venture firms in Silicon Valley start-ups. It won a coveted position as the only other investor beside Sequoia in hot video-sharing company, YouTube.

Back to Dash. The company won awards at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
last month. It is uses Yahoo for local search, so drivers can find things like bars, restaurants and movie times, along with maps. It uses Tele Atlas for maps, and Inrix for traffic pattern data, which can used to help drivers steer clear of traffic jams.

The GPS navigation market has been on fire this year, with the market tripling in 2006 compared to 2005, said chief executive Paul Lego. He expects the device to price within the $500 to $800 range, along with the existing leading devices.

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