Livescribe raises $7.5M more for Pulse smartpen

Livescribe, the maker of the Pulse smartpen that creates an audio recording linked to your handwritten notes, has raised $7.5 million in a second round of funding.

The Oakland, Calif. company has been making funding announcements throughout the past year, but all the previous news was about additions to Livescribe’s first round from the initial investors. In fact, Livescribe announced $10.175 million in new first-round funding as recently as February (the new announcement adjusts that number to $11.1 million). The seemingly constant fundraising means Livescribe has now raised an impressive sum of $48.8 million in venture backing.

The funding announcement also highlights some positive signs about Livescribe’s traction, including:

• It has 3,600 developers creating applications for the Livescribe app store, which it plans to launch later this year.
• 90.6 percent of its customers report “excellent” or “good” experiences with the pen.
• The company has 9,200 fans on its Facebook page.

What’s missing of course, are specific numbers about Pulse’s sales and whether the economy is hurting demand for this cool gadget. Without those numbers, I can only note that the Pulse sounds quite useful, but I haven’t bought one because I can’t justify spending the money. Livescribe says it’s seen “rapid market adoption in specific industries and professions that were initially not targeted by the company.”

The new funding comes from Aeris Capital, an investment firm based in Switzerland.