JackBe Corporation, a provider of enterprise AJAX software solutions and professional services, announced that it has closed on $6.5 million in Series B funding led by new investor Blue Chip Venture Company. The Department of Economic and Business Development of Maryland and JackBe original investors Darby Technology Ventures and Intel Capital also participated in the round. JackBe will use the funding to expand product development, and its sales and marketing efforts.

AJAX is a collection of technologies that allows browser-based applications to achieve the look, feel and interactivity of a desktop application. Using AJAX, organizations can make existing web applications much more user friendly and build new classes of applications for the web. AJAX can also reduce bandwidth and server utilization, thus reducing operating costs for the web services provider. According to Gartner, the web services market is estimated to grow to be a $250 million market by 2009.

“JackBe gives enterprises and government organizations a turnkey solution for dramatically improving end user experience for their web applications,” said Christopher McCleary, the Mid-Atlantic Partner for Blue Chip Venture Company and new Chairman of JackBe. “With more enterprise deployments than any other provider, we look forward to working with JackBe’s talented team as they capitalize on this great market opportunity.”

Added JackBe customer Forbes.com, “JackBe’s technology helps Forbes.com offer users the quickest and easiest means for finding information on our site,” said Mike Smith, General Manager of Operations, Forbes.com. “We look forward to additional JackBe AJAX-enabled innovations which will further enhance the user experience.”

Innovators like Google have invested heavily in developing custom AJAX solutions for their consumer Web applications. JackBe has built a packaged AJAX development platform and offers lifecycle services such as training, design, implementation and support that make it easy for mainstream enterprises to AJAX-enable their own web applications.

“Over the past three years, we have worked hand-in-hand with many large organizations, helping them realize the potential of AJAX,” said Luis Derechin, CEO, JackBe. “This investment will allow us to fast-track additional product development and expand our footprint in the marketplace.”

JackBe counts over 30 large enterprises as customers, including Forbes.com, CitiGroup, Sears, and health care giant, McKesson Corporation. These companies all selected JackBe's platform and services instead of expensive internal development projects.