It’s a smart idea, best exemplified by the fashion image that invites viewers to click through the relevant clothing and cosmetics vendors (although Luminate, formerly Pixazza, has also demonstrated how this concept can go horribly wrong).

Now a new German startup called Roombeats is joining the fray. However, rather than offering something different to those rivals, it’s instead promising more focus.

Specifically, Roombeats, which launched in beta on Friday, will only be concerned with embedded advertising. As co-founder Markus Berger-de León put it to me, Roombeats is aiming to be the “AdSense for images”. To start it on that journey, the company has picked up a five-figure sum from angel investors including Digital Pioneers.

“The focus of [Luminate and ThingLink] is to make images interactive,” Berger-de León told me. “Our focus is on making money for publishers with images by putting ads in there. The technology behind it is somewhat the same, but the focus is different.”

But wait, we’ve heard this pitch before.

GumGum also deals only with advertising, ignoring the more frivolous applications of image interactivity. That said, GumGum tends to provide banner ads, which Berger-de León suggests are still a turn-off for many consumers.

It remains to be seen exactly what Roombeats will do to attract publishers and advertisers that has not been done before. The co-founder talks of “various ad models” that his team is experimenting with, but details are scarce for now.

Berger-de León, who used to be CEO of the once-mighty StudiVZ social network and artisan marketplace MyHammer, is keen to promote the international aspirations of the company as one differentiator, and he has a point there. Luminate may be the leader in this field for now, but it remains a U.S.-centric affair for now. Roombeats will be global from early on, and multilingual to boot.

As with so many German startups at the moment, internationalization may be the key to its success.

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GumGum, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based online content licensing startup, is working on raising a $1 million round from First Round Capital and other investors, according to peHUB. VentureBeat says it’s actually $1.2 million. GumGum is focused on photos for now.

Personal video-sharing startup EatLime told VentureBeat it raised $400,000; we’d previously reported that round for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, but not the amount.

Also, we’d previously reported that Chinese user-generated advertising and video portal Ku6 had closed a $30 million Series C round of funding; the company confirmed the round but didn’t give an amount.

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