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Startup debuts iPad magazine

The startup, which makes an iPad app that helps users browse their social feeds on Twitter and Facebook, raised $10.5 million in a Series A round from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures and several angel investors, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, The Chernin Group media executive Peter Chernin, Ron Conway, Alfred Lin, Peter Currie, Quincy Smith and actor and Twitter enthusiast Ashton Kutcher.

The funding announcement coincided with the company’s release of the app and a marketing push on Twitter in which Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, co-founder Evan Doll, and Kutcher tweeted at length about the app. The marketing approach worked wonders, apparently, since so many users began to download the app at the onset that the Flipboard website flipboard.com had capacity problems.

McCue, who is the former CEO of TellMe, said the download problems are a testament to how the app has struck a chord with the Twitter and blogger community. And it points to the growth of the iPad. The company, which used part of the funding proceeds to buy real-time Web analytics company Ellerdale, is banking on the iPad as a new entertainment device.

“We’re definitely bullish about the iPad,” said Danny Rimer, general partner of Index Ventures and a new member of the Flipboard board of directors. Rimer added that this is his firm’s investment in an iPad app developer.