Skyfire (News - Alert) Labs, makers of the Skyfire mobile browser which allows users to experience the PC Web on their handsets, today announced $13 million in Series B (News - Alert) funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

This latest round of funding also includes previous investors Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures. The company will use the funds towards further rollout of its flagship browser and will add Jake Seid, managing director of Lightspeed, to its Board of Directors.

"We're thrilled to welcome Lightspeed and get the continued commitment from Matrix and Trinity," said Nitin Bhandari, CEO of Skyfire.  "Lightspeed has fueled innovation in mobile and consumer portfolio companies and we are certainly ready to take mobile browsing to the next level with their support and guidance.

Skyfire, a free downloadable browser currently in private beta, offers users a PC browsing experience at fast speeds, all on their mobile phones. Since its debut at the DEMO show in January of 2008, Skyfire has received overwhelming critical acclaim due to its focus on solving one of the biggest issues for consumers - a broken mobile browsing experience

 “With these funds, we are poised to bring Skyfire to a large number of handsets and launch outside the U.S.  Skyfire gives users the freedom to browse whatever they want, and now we can extend our efforts to get Skyfire on a significant market share of Smartphones – giving more people what they hunger for," said Bhandari.

Users can now experience the full PC Web version of sites like YouTube (News - Alert), Facebook and Last.fm at record speeds. Before Skyfire, users painfully waited for these Flash and Ajax-heavy sites to render – often resulting in error messages or crashes.

 

"Skyfire will fundamentally change the way people use their phones," said Seid of Lightspeed. "In Skyfire and its management team, we at Lightspeed see a truly disruptive product led by proven leaders who understand consumer technology and can navigate the complex mobile ecosystem."

 

Skyfire's \technology is the foundation of Skyfire's ability to support all Web technologies, both current and future, at speeds comparable to the PC. With Skyfire's proprietary technology, supporting any new Web standard becomes a seamless user experience without the need to upgrade to new releases. This technology allows Skyfire to support real Web browsing while saving precious bandwidth and reducing processing power and memory needed on the phone.