Flip Creator Scores $10M for Grilled Cheese Venture

The next logical step for Jonathan Kaplan, creator of the Flip video camera, is clearly ... grilled cheese sandwiches. Kaplan announced his new project yesterday at the D9 conference, and revealed that he snagged a whopping $10 million in venture funding. (Kaplan wouldn't actually specify the amount, but VentureBeat does the math.) What in the world do grilled cheese sandwiches—$5 grilled cheese sandwiches, Gawker notes skeptically—have to do with the digital world?

Well, there's an app, of course. Kaplan's company, The Melt, will allow users to order sandwiches via a mobile site. Customers will then receive a QR code they can redeem at any Melt restaurant (Kaplan has enough money to open 20) for a freshly-made meal. Though Gawker's Ryan Tate's take on the whole thing is a bit snarky ("Despite what anyone tells you, we're not in a tech bubble!"), VentureBeat's Anthony Ha notes that "it sounds like Kaplan is really trying to invent a new model for the restaurant business, one that uses mobile technology for an experience that’s fast and flexible without sacrificing quality." (More All Things Digital stories.)