The Big deal:

[Mobile] – Airplay Network, $14M

THE REST:

[Communications] – Jacket Micro Devices, $12M

[Internet Services] – DoctorsDirect.com, $2.5M

MOBILE

Airplay Network

San Francisco, CA

Funding:$14M

Prior funding:$4M

Round:B

Description:Creates wireless games based on real-life (and real-time) events.

Investors:JK&B Capital, Onset Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Motorola, and Qualcomm.

The Herring Take:Are you ready for some football?If Airplay Network’s partnerships are any indication, casual mobile gamers certainly are.The company announced an agreement with Sprint earlier this year that will help get Airplay Network’s Airplay TV network out to a ton of eyeballs.

Airplay TV’s flagship program is Live Football, an application that lets users predict football events before they happen in a game-like format.For example, if a user selects “pass,” and Tom Brady chucks the ball 30 yards in the next play of the big game, then the user gets points.Consequently, if the user picked “run,” then points are lost.The system brings the notion of armchair quarterbacking to a new, cellular level, but the sports world is only the beginning.Already, AirPlay has brought its relatively innovative interactivity to the red carpet, giving users a similar, predictive play environment for the 58^th Annual Emmys.

If we had to fire up our cell phones and make a prediction for Airplay’s future, we’re betting on “success.”After all, the casual, mobile gaming marketplace is expected to experience quite a bit of growth in the next few years.According to Juniper Research, 2006 revenues for mobile gaming are expected to reach $3 billion.By 2009, the market is expected to reach $10.5 billion in global revenue.The Emmy’s sure don’t have this kind of foresight…

COMMUNICATIONS

Jacket Micro Devices

Atlanta, GA

Funding:$12M

Prior funding: $6M

Round:C

Description:Develops RF modules for the wireless market.

Lead Investor:Intersouth Partners

Other Investors:Noro-Mosley Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds and Imlay Investments.

The Herring Take:Well, with a substantial chunk of the networking marketplace headed towards an eventual acceptance of the 802.11N standard (a 200-million-unit sector by 2009, says In-Stat Research), the field’s certainly ripe.And Jacket Micro Devices’ technology will always be in demand; shrinking RF components for wireless devices only allows for smaller wireless devices themselves, always a hot issue.

According to ABI Research, the market for Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics is expected to grow from 2006’s 40 million shipped units to approximately 250 million by 2011.Wireless networking is clearly taking a greater foothold in the consumer marketplace; all Jacket Micro Devices needs is a slice of the pie.

INTERNET SERVICES

DoctorsDirect.com

Santa Monica, CA

Funding:  $2.5M

Prior funding: n/a

Round:  A

Description:  Connects potential patients to area doctors, and allows users to book appointments online.

Investor:  Spark Capital.

The Herring Take:  It’s an interesting concept, to say the least, but consider the details.For starters, the service isn’t exactly widespread.The site only offers three featured areas to choose from--Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco—with a substantial majority of the site’s total available practitioners, 57, in LA.Will that be enough to jumpstart the Web business?No.Hopefully DoctorsDirect will use some of its newfound funding to substantially expand into more metropolitan areas, else the service will be excised from the Web faster than you can say “Ahh.”

Contact the writer:DMurphy@RedHerring.com

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