Hillcrest Labs is one of 65 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2010 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.
There are 8 to 10 million U.S. households with a computer connected to a TV, according to market data from CEA, Pew and others. Kylo is designed to serve them.
Kylo is a browser designed to run on any Mac or PC. It it specifically meant to be used for those times when people physically connect their computers to the living room TV set.
Kylo is designed for viewing at a distance, allowing more screen space for content than a regular computer browser allows. The Kylo browser also has an onscreen keyboard, large buttons, screen zooming, and quick links to popular websites. The company sells a Loop pointer to go with the browser, but it will also work with a regular mouse.
Of course, not all websites are going to cooperate with Kylo. For example, Hulu has already blocked the browser.
Unlike most of the companies on show at DEMO Spring 2010, Kylo is already backed by serious money. Hillcrest Labs, the company behind Kilo, has roughly $50 million in funding from investors including NEA, Columbia Capital, Grotech Ventures, and AllianceBernstein.
How will Kylo make money from all this? Vice president of marketing Parag Sheth says the business model has two prongs. One is licensing the technology to large companies -- Logitech, Kodak and Universal Electronic are already licensees - and the other selling its Loop pointers to home users.
Kylo is initially available only in English and targeted at the U.S. market but can be downloaded from any country.
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/980795693