Famo.us has raised $4 million from investors in Series A funding, including Javelin Venture Partners, which led the round. Other investors were not identified publicly.

The recent funding comes after Famo.us raised $1.1 million in a seed round. One goal of the company appears to be hiring more specialized staff, based on recent news reports.

To understand Famo.us, one has to first understand that the new company provides a JavaScript framework for powering HTML5 apps. It makes them speedy and visually appealing. Famo.us doesn’t use plug-ins, WebGL or Canvas, according to TechCrunch. It can be used on smartphones, tablets, PCs and TVs. A current demo features the periodic table of elements.

The company is reaching out to developers and there is clear interest; some 16,000 developers signed up for the beta version of the offering.

“Famo.us is trying make the platform available for free to developers by treating hardware manufacturers as its customers, customizing the framework to take advantage of their device capabilities,” according to a report.

Steve Newcomb heads up Famo.us. He was a co-founder of Powerset, a search firm purchased by Microsoft (News – Alert) for $100 million. He is also an investor in Thirst Labs. It offers a news platform which lets users find, share and discuss current news by topic on a single platform, TMCnet reported.

In looking at the company’s goals, Famo.us is trying to come up with “tools that could redefine how we see the mobile web in particular,” VentureBeat reported. “Famo.us is capable of rendering hundreds of surfaces at 60 frames per second. Newcomb said that every consumer-facing app he and his team has looked at has fewer than 50 surfaces displaying at a time.”

Meanwhile, Newcomb is hopeful about Famo.us. “Everyone knows that if you make HTML5 perform, you change the game,” Newcomb told VentureBeat in a recent interview.