Tawkon, an Israeli startup that offers mobile apps capable of measuring cellular radiation, has secured seed funding to the tune of $1.5 million.
The capital injection comes from thetime, an investment company owned by Ilan Shiloah, chairman of McCann Erickson Israel and Nir Tarlovsky, and from Tzvika Barinboim. Other backers include management consulting company TASC, Don Perrin (one of Zipcar’s earliest investors) and Yossi Sandler, an early investor in Yedda (which was acquired by AOL).
Tawkon’s offers mobile apps for Android phones, BlackBerry handsets and the iOS platform, although the iPhone app only runs on jailbroken devices.
You see, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made it abundantly clear that Tawkon‘s phone radiation measurement application is not welcome on its official App Store, pushing the startup to make it available for free (again, for jailbroken iPhones) through Cydia instead.
Last March, Tawkon had sent an email to Jobs in the hopes of gaining approval for distribution of the application through Apple’s App Store, only to receive this response from the man, the legend:
No interest.
Well, at least his disinterest hasn’t spooked investors too much.