Gist Raises $6.75M Series A to Blend Internet and Email Content

Gist, a year-old, Seattle-based startup incubated at Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, just raised a hefty, $6.75 million Series A, led by Brad Feld’s Foundry Group, with participation from Vulcan.

The startup, in closed beta right now, aims to integrate Microsoft and Outlook “intelligently,” aggregating, organizing and prioritizing emails, links and related information about one’s contacts, including from traditional news sources online and blogs.

The company’s CEO is T.A. McCann, someone who knows a thing or two about email — and Microsoft’s in particular. Though McCann was most recently an entrepreneur in residence at Vulcan and before that, Polaris Venture Partners, he’d previously led strategy and product planning for Microsoft’s Exchange Server Group. (Interestingly, his bio also says that he once won sailing’s America’s Cup and sailed around the world.)

For more on Gist and McCann, here’s his blog.