Incline startup financed by venture firms

Sensr.net, an Incline Village startup that's developing technology for cloud-based video monitoring, said last week it's secured $1.5 million in funding.

The financing round was led by Spark Capital of Boston with participation by Charles River Ventures of Waltham, Mass., and undisclosed angel investors.

Sensr.net has developed infrastructure for a system that allows consumers to set up and remotely monitor low-cost Web cameras. Sensr.net continuously monitors and archives cameras and notifies users instantly via email or text message if activity is detected.

The technology also allows users to share the videos via the sensr.net Web site, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social networking sites.

The social-networking component caught the attention of investors.

"The mix of video monitoring and social networking is a new and exciting angle," Bill Tai, general partner at Charles River Ventures, said in a statement last week.

And Santo Politi, general partner of Spark Capital, said the investment firm believes an expensive video monitoring technology combined with the fun of social media presents "a huge growth opportunity."

Sensr.net was launched in 2009 by Adam Bequelin, who now serves as its chief executive officer.

Bequelin previous founded Truveo, a search engine for Web video that was acquired by AOL in 2006. He worked as vice president of AOL Video after the sale of his company.

He's also a former faculty member at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Other executives of the firm include Yacin Bahi, its chief technology officer and founder of Silicon Valley startups including Ybsis, and Thomas Sheffler, its chief scientist and a veteran of the technology infrastructure company Rambus.