GENWI Poised to Expand Cloud-Based Mobile App-Building Service

App building ain't just for developers anymore. Or so GENWI would suggest.

The company — which according to an exclusive Tech Crunch report has just raised $4 million in Series A funding, bringing its total to a cool $5.1 million — offers a cloud-based publishing platform that enables publishers, broadcasters or just about anyone to, in turn-key fashion, make slick smartphone or tablet apps out of existing content such as print magazines.

GENWI is hardly alone in trying to help companies rapidly build mobile apps, in particular easy-to-assemble but slick tablet apps. Among other players in this area are OnSwipe and Pressly.

Users can manage content, design and monetization through the GENWI's publishing platform, and content can be revised instantly and "made immediately available to app users," eliminating the need to resubmit apps to the Android or Apple app stores.

"This allows companies to create apps on mobile devices that are much more flexible and continuously upgradeable, much like a SaaS product in the Web space," the firm explains on its site.

All GENWI apps come with a laundry list of features, including an apps management system; video, audio and podcasts; geo location; push notifications; local coupons, in-app subscriptions; and real-time analytics. There's a full list on the GENWI site.

There's a feature for building iPad apps, in HTML5 and CSS, an Advanced Option for custom designs and a mobile CMS (mCMS) for adding content in different formats. Pricing, co-founder Raju Sagiraju told Tech Crunch, depended on app interactions and use, the average iPhone, Android or HTML5 app can be created and launched for approximately $500 a month.

As of July, GENWI was supporting more than 1,500 apps from more than 30,000 "publishers."

The company's massive new cash influx, according to the report, will be used to "build out the infrastructure and an extensive app network to offer more advanced monetization and distribution features for publishers, global expansion and the development of multilingual functionality."