Since we can stream music (Spotify, Deezer…) and movies (Hulu, Netflix), why wouldn’t we stream apps as well? Not their sound, silly, but their functionality. Why can’t your favourite, computer-processing-intensive app be available anywhere? Well, Fra.me, the San Francisco based startup is working hard to make it a reality and they’ve just raised a follow-up $10 million in their series A round to prove it!

I’m guessing that although we wrote about them, you probably still haven’t joined more than 100,000 users on the Fra.me platform. Fine. Let’s go over 3 additional reasons why investment fund Columbus Nova Technology Partners and Bain Capital Ventures put $10 million in this startup with offices both in the US and Serbia, and they aren’t tied to just running demanding software!

What Do You Remember About Fra.Me?

I know what you’re asking. There are so many web and cloud apps, why would I ever use a desktop app again. True. This very article was built in a web based text editor. However, while there are lots of useful web apps we use daily, such as Google Drive or Outlook.com, some situations just need a desktop solution to a real world problem.

Moviemakers can’t really “render” your next favourite movie in a web app since it requires a lot of horsepower (especially if you have an older computer like we mentioned in the previous article about Fra.me, then Mainframe2), specifically a lot of CPU and GPU strength your computer or even your companies doesn’t have. Even if it did, it would be far better to offload all the heavy lifting to someone else.

Fra.me describes itself as the “only app-streaming service that is 100% automated”. What that means in fancy startup speak is that the whole experience of opening your favourite desktop app is already setup for you and all you have to do is open it in your browser – and Fra.me even supports the well loved hated Internet Explorer, along with Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

1. Forget Sending Files – Just Stream That PSD!

When we stream an app, we mustn’t forget the benefit we get in the process: Multiplayer! Pardon the gaming vocabulary, but what I mean is that you can use your favourite app instantly with either a coworker – or customer. So no more “Photoshop tennis” for the designers sending numerous versions of a logo because Photoshop can’t “just share files”.

2. No More installs

If you can stream an app to somebody, and it’s used just sparingly – why would your coworkers ever need to install another piece of software on their own computer? Just get it running on Fra.me and stream as needed. The great thing about this approach is that your IT support (a.ka. you probably) can forget having to worry about each individual install and setup. It’s streamed – USE IT!

3. Embed a (Desktop) App into Your Website – or Web Service!

With just one line of HTML code you can now embed a live application into your website, blog, web service, business landing page… You get it. Seriously? I can actually use Word or Excel… inside my web app that I’ve also integrated Google Drive in? I wonder if I can do an inception integration, embedding a browser that’s showing the website it’s being embedded on? Nolan would be so proud.

Frame’s CEO Nikola Bozinovic in an interview with Netokracija said that they want to position themselves as the top startup working in the virtualization space! With these 3 additional arguments, they could indeed do so fairly easily!