Qwiki, a new service that delivers information through rich multimedia presentations, is raising an $8 million round of funding, according a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Palo Alto, Calif. company launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in September, where it won the top award. You still need an invitation to access the site, but the conference judges were obviously impressed by the presentation they saw last fall, and I was even more impressed when founder and chief executive Doug Imbruce sat down to show me the product a couple of months later.

The goal is to deliver a much richer information experience than what you normally find on the Web. Imbruce has compared the product to how computers work on science fiction movies like Wall-E: You ask about topics like a4��ASan Franciscoa4��� or a4��AAOLa4��� or a4��ANatalie Portmana4���, then Qwiki delivers audio narration from sites like Wikipedia, accompanied by images and other media. Obviously, there are cases where youa4��a4�re looking for quick bits of information and dona4��a4�t want to bother with a fancy presentation, but if you want an engaging overview of a topic, Qwiki offers a good way to get that. The company also wants to work with publishers to deliver their content in a richer way.

And Qwiki will work on smartphones and tablets. Imbruce has said his team is working to develop a personalized experience as well, so, for example, every morning your phone could tell you about relevant weather, appointments, emails.

When asked about the filing today, Imbruce declined to confirm the funding. He only said, a4��AQwiki has generated a lot of interest from the investor community, acquirers, publishers and more.a4���

The filing says Qwiki has raised $5 million of the $8 million round already. The company previously raised $1.5 million in funding.

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

Next Story: FCC chair: Wireless spectrum crunch is a vital economic issue for U.S. Previous Story: Verizon iPhone coming February 3rd (Update: Verizon announcement next week)

Print Email Twitter Facebook Google Buzz LinkedIn Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Delicious Google More&8230'

Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters. Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.