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Web 2.0 - Monday, April 30, 2007

Investors Pour Funding Into ProVina Whose 2006 WinePod Sold Out

San Jose-based ProVina, maker of the WinePod personal wine brewing device, has raised $4M in the firm's first outside investment. The round was led by VantagePoint Venture Partners. The company's board includes Cypress Semiconductor CEO TJ Rodgers.

WinePod is a wireless web-connected device that allows wine snobs to mix their own wines. The price is $3,500 per unit plus shipping. WinePod is a 2-foot tall insulated metal egg with a 2-ton metal press and automatic temperature control that ferments your wine. It can take from a few months to a year or more for your wine to distill. Your batch should yield about 6 cases. Your dashboard tells you to adjust pH or temperature, add water, etc. Clearly there is no practical reason to own won but so many people these days are showy with their wine collections, this is the state of the art in keeping up with the Joneses.

View - Winepod site