Bill Nguyen (pictured), the entrepreneur who sold streaming music firm Lala to Apple in 2009, is launching a new venture called Color which enables mobile users “to capture photos, videos and conversations into a group album.” The new service is available as a free app for iOS and Android-based devices. The idea is for people to use Color to share photos and videos with others in the same vicinity (the company’s website says within 150 feet) while “built-in SMS and text messaging keeps the conversation going.”

The idea sounds a familiar one but Color sets itself apart thanks to the scale of its backing. It raised US$14 million in funding from Bain Capital Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank in September, followed more recently by Sequoia Capital (a hefty US$25 million) and then an additional US$2 million from Silicon Valley Bank again. Prior to Color, Nguyen had founded seven start-ups including Seven and Onebox as well as Lala.

Color is a free service and the aim is to “generate revenue through advertising and location-based marketing services”, according to Reuters. It will use the latest funding to drive its development and build out the infrastructure it needs to analyse large volumes of location-based data. It recently hired DJ Patil, the chief scientist of LinkedIn, as its new chief data officer. Judging from the early user reviews on its website, the app still needs some money spent on it. Eight out of the ten most recent reviews awarded only one or two stars out of five and some strong views were expressed on the app’s teething problems.