Syntellia, a next-generation text input company, today announced a $3 million Series A financing round with participation from Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Middleland Capital and other institutional and angel investors. This financing marks Highland's first investment under its recently announced Leap Fund™ initiative. The Leap Fund™ was established earlier this year to support entrepreneurs and companies that are developing breakthrough experiences to solve human scale problems.

Syntellia is best known for its award-winning product Fleksy -- the first virtual keyboard to make typing on a touchscreen as easy and natural as it is on a physical keyboard. Like a physical keyboard, Fleksy is powerful enough to even allow completely eyes-free typing. Fleksy works by applying a novel Artificial Intelligence approach to the task of typing.

With users ranking typing as one of their biggest frustrations with touchscreen devices, and companies seeking to build competitive advantage, the race is on to develop a better keyboard solution and enable the transition to computing that is fully mobile. Additionally, the emergence of even smaller devices and new technologies, like the Leap Motion Controller, smart-watches and other wearable computers, will further increase the necessity for a comfortable typing solution.

With its new funding Syntellia plans to aggressively reach millions of users with its Fleksy keyboard by expanding its Android beta. It will also be the first third-party keyboard to enter the iOS market through partnerships with leading applications -- the first of which will hit the App Store this fall.

'Fleksy is a next generation software keyboard that has the promise to become the standard for typing on a touchscreen,' said Bing Gordon, general partner at KPCB. 'We're excited to partner with Syntellia to develop technologies that improve the touchscreen experience, helping users make a seamless transition from desktop to mobile computing.'

'We are excited to be investing in a very innovative technology that is solving an emerging human scale problem of not just typing, but how people interact with touch interfaces,' said Manish Patel, partner at Highland Capital Partners. 'We look forward to Fleksy becoming the standard for text input on the touchscreen, and seeing Syntellia continue to apply Artificial Intelligence-based insights to shape the post-touchscreen experience.'

'Current solutions require too much user concentration while typing. Our goal is to make everyone more productive by offering an experience that just feels right,' said Kosta Eleftheriou, Founder & CEO of Syntellia. 'To achieve this, we had to rethink the problem of typing for the touch-screen and post-touch-screen era. We are extremely pleased to have brought together a panel of strong investors to help us realize our vision, and meet increasing demand for our technology on touch-screens and beyond,' said Ioannis Verdelis, Founder and COO of Syntellia.

To download Fleksy, visit fleksy.com. To learn more about Syntellia, visit syntellia.com.

About Syntellia
Syntellia was founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs with multiple successful exits in the tech industry, with a vision to bridge the Artificial Intelligence research field with real world applications in the computing and mobile markets.

Its first product, Fleksy, is a next generation patent-pending software keyboard technology which makes typing on a touchscreen as easy as on a hardware keyboard. Launched in 2012 initially as an application for blind and visually impaired users, Fleksy has received wide acclaim, being recognized as one of the Best of App Store 2012 apps by Apple, a CES Design and Engineering Honoree, a SXSW Interactive Accelerator winner and a Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year finalist.

Based in San Francisco, CA, Syntellia is privately-held and backed by Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Middleland Capital and other institutional and angel investors

For more information, visit http://www.syntellia.com.

About Highland Capital Partners
Founded in 1988, Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on putting the entrepreneur first. With offices in Silicon Valley, Boston and Shanghai, Highland has raised over $3 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 225 companies, resulting in category-defining businesses across consumer and enterprise technology. Investments include 2U, Aereo, Ask Jeeves, Bromium, Calxeda, Leap Motion, LevelUp, Lycos, MapQuest, Nebula, QD Vision, Qihoo 360, Quattro Wireless, RentJuice, Rent the Runway, Starent Networks, Sybase, Violin Memory, VistaPrint and WePay. Highland also serves as a mentor for future entrepreneurs through Summer@Highland, a program that provides students and university-affiliated startups with the environment and resources to take their initiative to the next level. For more information, visit http://www.hcp.com.

About Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
For more than 40 years Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has backed entrepreneurs in more than 700 ventures leading to nearly 200 IPOs and the creation of over 375,000 jobs. The firm has helped to build pioneering companies like Amazon, Electronic Arts, Flipboard, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Nest, Netscape, Square, Symantec, VeriSign, and WebMD, among others. KPCB accelerates the success of entrepreneurs with a team of partners experienced in strategy, operational scaling, recruiting, business development, product delivery and marketing. The firm has offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Shanghai and Beijing. http://www.kpcb.com.

About Middleland Capital
Middleland Capital is a global private investment firm focused on early-stage technology opportunities. Leveraging a unique breadth of geographic and industry experience, the firm seeks long-term partnerships with exceptional management teams to commercialize innovative technologies, accelerate growth and build long-term value around the world. For more information, visit http://www.middlelandcap.com.