Martin Tobias scores $5 million for Kashless -- from a familiar source

Martin Tobias

Post has been updated with comments from Martin Tobias.

Earlier this month, my colleague Eric Engleman reported on the activities of former Imperium Renewables chief executive Martin Tobias and his new startup company, Kashless.

Now comes word via PeHub's Dan Primack that Tobias has raised $5 million from RRE Ventures for the new company. In an interview this morning from Hawaii, a tired Tobias confirmed the deal but declined to talk about details surrounding Kashless.

A few weeks ago, Tobias described Kashless as "ReCommerce" which he said is where "clean tech meets software." The company's Web site says they are "hard at work helping you reduce, reuse and save" and a blog post from Tobias notes that the idea for Kashless started when he was cleaning out some junk in his garage.

Whether at Loudeye or Imperium Renewables, Tobias has always had an uncanny ability to raise capital. And while some of his past startups have not turned out as planned, the former Microsoftie has been at the forefront of two tectonic shifts in the business world, the rise of the Internet and clean tech.

Watching Kashless try to combine those two areas will be interesting. That's especially the case since Tobias tends to swing for the fences in the startups he builds.

"There really is no point in doing something that is going to be a single," said Tobias. "You might as well stay on the bench. It is no fun."

RRE should know Tobias well. After all, the firm was an early investor in Loudeye, the Seattle digital media company that Tobias helped guide to an initial public offering in 2000. In fact, RRE was part of the investor group that participated in Loudeye's whopping $47.8 million funding round in 1999.

The connections between RRE and Tobias go even deeper.

A former director at Loudeye was none other than RRE Ventures' Stuart Ellman, who PeHub notes is joining the board of Kashless.

Tobias said he and Ellman have been talking for some time about doing another project. And he noted that Ellman was an eager investor in Kashless.

"When you make a guy money, they are usually happy to fund you again," said Tobias. "And he made a lot of money on Loudeye."

Tobias also noted that the venture funding will be a strategic advantage in terms of hiring and surviving the next two years, which he said would be a "black hole" for some companies. Because of those factors, he said now is a very good time to start a new company.

The investment closed last month and provides Kashless with more than two years of cash.