US-based search engine technology developer Atlas Recall has raised $20.7m in funding from investors including software company Microsoft, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
Venture capital firm Aspect Ventures and private investor Nathan Myhrvold also supplied capital to the round, which was disclosed at the same time as Atlas Recall opened its beta version to the public.
Atlas Recall has developed a search engine that indexes everything across a user’s devices and ‘understands’ the context of files. The technology allows users to find information whether it resides locally, in the cloud, on a social network or in an email.
The metadata is encrypted and saved in the cloud. Atlas Recall is hoping to develop a freemium model that will not rely on advertising, as such an approach would require access to a user’s personal data.
The company has not revealed how it intends to invest the capital, but public betas are generally used to weed out bugs and develop the platform to a commercially viable standard.