VentureBeat

DeviceVM, a company that allows you to use your computer while it’s booting up, has raised another $15 million in funding.

The San Jose, Calif. company’s software is called Splashtop, and it comes preinstalled on PCs and motherboards. When those PCs are turned on, or when users hit a special key, they can use Splashtop within a few seconds to check their email, chat with friends, get on the Internet and more. (See screenshot below.) Although it’s kind of sad that computer boot times are slow enough to make this product useful, it’s cool that you don’t have to just twiddle your thumbs as you wait for your computer to start.

In addition to snagging some positive press and awards, DeviceVM has also landed some high-profile investors. This new round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from existing investors Storm Ventures, DFJ Dragon, Tim Draper and Larry Augustin (the last two are high-profile individual investors). Earlier this year, DeviceVM raised $1 million from Merus Capital, the firm created by former managers and executives from Google and Microsoft. The company has now raised a total of around $36 million.

DeviceVM says Splashtop has already shipped on millions of ASUS computers, while HP will be including the software in some of its notebooks soon.

DeviceVM, a maker of software that lets you check your email, chat and surf the web within seconds of turning on your computer, has raised a small third round of funding.

The backing, $1 million, comes from Merus Capital, the new firm founded by departed business development executives at Google and Microsoft.

The company hopes Merus can use its connections with computer manufacturers to get its software more widely distributed.

San Jose, Calif.-based DeviceVM’s software is called Splashtop, and is built into the motherboards of desktop and laptop computers. It is available for ASUS desktop PCs that run Windows or Linux. ASUS plans to introduce Splashtop to its line of laptops, as well (see review here). It is also aiming for widespread adoption by other PC manufacturers around the world.

The investment is notable because it is the first investment the firm, founded by Salman Ullah, the recently departed vice president of business development at Google, Sean Dempsey, former Principal of Corporate Development at Google, and Peter Hsing, former Managing Director of Corporate Strategy at Microsoft (our coverage of Ullah’s new fund, here). Separately, Larry Augustin, founder of open source code repository SourceForge, has also joined the DeviceVM board of directors.

While Merus says it is focused on early stage investments, DeviceVM has already raised two rounds of venture funding from a large group of investors, for a total of around $21 million before the Merus investment.

The company raised more than $10 million last fall (our coverage) and another $10.5 million in 2006 (our coverage).

Splashtop is a newly released technology that lets you browse the Internet within 20 seconds of pushing a PC’s start button. It has just gotten $10 million in venture capital to help it get to market.

See video below about how it works (RSS readers will have to visit site).

The technology is owned by DeviceVM, a San Jose, Calif. company. It works by offering you features without fully booting the computer. See full announcement here.

The company hopes to have the technology integrated in PCs and other products before they’re shipped. ASUS, the largest manufacturer of motherboards, will include DeviceVM on its new $360 ASUS P5E3 Deluxe model. It will brand the Linux desktop feature “Express Gate.”

The lead investor for this round is DFJ Dragon, the Chinese affiliate of Silicon Valley’s Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Other investors include Sumitomo’s venture arm, Presidio, HTC founders Cher Wang and Chen Wen Chi, and WR Hambrecht Ventures.

The funding follows quickly on the heels of a $10.5 million investment in August, led by Storm Ventures, and including DFJ Dragon, ASUS, iDInnovations (Acer), Harbinger (Mitac-Synnex), and angels.

DeviceVM falls into the hot category of “virtualization” (we first mentioned the company here). It was founded last year, and also has offices in China and Taiwan.