Ignite Game Technologies, the San Francisco-based online gaming startup that specializes in car racing games, has raised $5 million in new funding, bringing its total investment to $17.5 million. The company makes massive multi-player online racing games in which people compete in real time Read more »
Keas, a San Francisco-based startup co-founded by veteran technologist Adam Bosworth has raised $6.5 million in new funds from existing investors Atlas Ventures and Ignition Parters. The company is finding success with focus on wellness as a social game and selling it to large companies. Read more »
TaskRabbit has raised $17.8 million in a Series B funding round. It’s just been 7 months since the company announced its $5 million Series A, but growth has been fast and furious: TaskRabbit has tripled net revenue and seen a seven-fold increase in customers since May. Read more »
It’s been a big part of the Internet picture for well over a decade, but right now e-commerce is really hitting its stride, according to a new report out of CB Insights and the BizTech@Wharton Conference. M&A activity is surging and investment dollars are growing steadily. Read more »
It’s easier than ever to build a web or mobile app and call yourself a startup. But with new funding opportunities and technology tools, entrepreneurs can easily — and cheaply — use technology to solve larger problems, rather than create another lifestyle app. Read more »
Awe.sm has secured $4 million in Series A funding. Awe.sm is probably best known to most people for its URL shortening service, but the San Francisco-based startup says it’s actually rooted in a deeper software platform attached to those shortened links that provides analytics tools. Read more »
Infochimps, the two-year-old company that runs a “data marketplace” where owners of datasets can charge for their usage, is swapping CEOs. Co-founder Nick Ducoff has stepped down from the CEO role, and the company is looking for a “seasoned executive” to take his place. Read more »
There’s been a lot of media buzz in recent months about the lack of racial and gender diversity in the tech startup landscape. Now new data from the National Venture Capital Association indicates that the VC field is similarly homogenous: It’s very white and mostly male. Read more »
Six of Yelp’s top executives and investors cashed out $36.8 million worth of company stock during Yelp’s Series E funding round in early 2010, according to the company’s IPO filing, with CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and board chairman Max Levchin each selling some $15 million of stock. Read more »
Hotel Tonight, the app that lets you book last minute hotel rooms for discounted rates, is currently raising a $9.1 million funding round, according to documents filed with the SEC Wednesday. The company has raised $8.65 million in the round so far, the filings show. Read more »
Kontagent on Thursday announced it has raised $12 million in fresh venture funding, bringing the company’s total VC investment to $19.5 million. The company says it’ll put the new money toward R&D on deep tech such as big data processing and predictive analytics tools. Read more »
Parse, which makes a software platform that adds a cloud component to any mobile app, has raised $5.5 million. The funding round serves as a Series A for the company and brings its total investment to $7 million. Parse calls itself “the Heroku for mobile apps.” Read more »
Google chairman Eric Schmidt says his company is not quashing competition in the web industry — and has pointed to the fact that search startups like Hipmunk are still receiving millions in venture capital funding as proof. But does this really mean there’s a level playing field? Read more »
Live video streaming pioneer Ustream is going through some pretty major changes, the company said Friday. First, it has landed $6 million in new funding from two existing investors — and second, its co-founder, John Ham, is leaving his job as the company’s CEO. Read more »
Iddiction, a new startup led by Outfit7′s founding CEO Andrej Nabergoj, has secured $3.5 million in a seed round of funding. Details on what exactly Iddiction will do are scarce, since Nabergoj says the company is currently in stealth mode, but it already has big-name backers. Read more »
Big data technology is attracting some big bucks. Kaggle, a startup that helps companies outsource large business analytics projects by turning them into large-scale competitions for scientists around the world, will announce Thursday it has secured $11 million in venture capital funding. Read more »
Rounds, a startup that makes a popular video chat app for Facebook, has raised $3 million in new funding. The Israel-based company says it will use the money to expand its video chat service beyond Facebook to other social networks and onto mobile devices. Read more »
Waddle, the San Francisco-based startup that makes a group photo sharing app for the iPhone, is preparing to get a bit bigger: The company has landed seed funding from Chinese Internet giant Tencent. It has also released an update to its photo sharing app, Waddle 2.0. Read more »
Sincerely, the San Francisco startup aimed at making it easier to get physical copies of the photos taken on mobile phones, is announcing Wednesday it has secured $3 million in Series A funding. The company is also set to launch a holiday card app, “Sincerely Ink.” Read more »
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t know your neighbors all that well — if at all. That’s where a startup called Nextdoor wants to help. Nextdoor lets neighbors create private websites where they can exchange local information while getting to know each other better. Read more »
Peter Thiel, the tech industry magnate known for co-founding PayPal and being an early investor in Facebook, is launching a new program called Breakout Labs aimed at funding cutting edge technology research ideas. It’s a big effort, but Thiel himself is known for bold ideas. Read more »
Peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly has secured some major support — from some of the tech industry’s biggest names. Zaarly has closed on $14.1 million in a series A funding round. In addition, Hewlett-Packard CEO and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has joined Zaarly’s board of directors. Read more »
Qwiki, the San Francisco-based search startup, may be going through a rough patch. Qwiki’s two top technical executives and at least one early engineer left abruptly last week, sources say, after major disagreements with the CEO over the company’s future product strategy. Read more »
Liftopia, a website that sells discounted ski lift tickets and alpine resort packages, has closed on $1.3 million in new funding. The five-year-old company, which was founded by former Hotwire executives, says it plans to add deals on summertime “mountain-related activities” to make more year-round revenue. Read more »
Although Silicon Valley has generally fared better than many other parts of the world, the venture capital industry is not immune to the macro-economic slowdown. In the third quarter of 2011, VC funding fell 12 percent in dollars and 14 percent in deals compared to Q2. Read more »
Livefyre, the software platform that embeds live commenting on websites, has secured $4.5 million in a new round of funding. The startup says it plans to use the money on hiring and new products — which will come in handy since it has some stiff competition: Facebook. Read more »
AwayFind, the email productivity app that lets users get alerts when they receive important messages, is getting serious about business — its own, and others. The San Francisco startup has announced a new version specifically for businesses and the closure of its round of seed funding. Read more »
myGengo, a startup that provides customized language translation services, has taken raised $5.25 million in new funding. myGengo is unique because it’s priced competitively — less than half the average price of professional translation — but its translations are made completely by humans, with no machine translation. Read more »
Y Combinator is on the hunt for its next batch of startups, and the competition is stiff: The incubator generally accepts only three percent of the applications it receives. I sat down with YC partner Jessica Livingston to find out what they look for in entrepreneurs. Read more »
Lot18 has secured a small investment from some big-name backers, just as competition from Gilt Groupe heats up. The New York City-based daily deals site focused on high-end wine and complementary foods announced Wednesday it has received funding from Quidsi founders Marc Lore and Vinit Bharara. Read more »
Silicon Valley startup incubator Y-Combinator held the first of two demo days for its Summer 2011 class on Tuesday, unveiling 63 new companies. It’s the incubator’s largest class yet, and overall, a very impressive one. Here’s five of the most scene-stealing startups from this YC batch. Read more »
Proving that virtual currency can be worth a good amount of real-life cash, social stock market Empire Avenue has landed $1.2 million in funding. Empire Avenue serves a unique and somewhat controversial purpose: It’s a stock market that puts a price on people instead of companies. Read more »
Okta, a startup that makes identity and access management software for enterprises, has closed $16.5 million in new funding. Okta’s software enables multiple people within an enterprise to sign in to the company’s web-based applications, whether they’re in the cloud or behind a firewall. Read more »
Every developer who makes a popular web or mobile app is eventually faced with a decision: They can either stick with the status quo or swing for the fences. These days, many people are taking VC and going big — but is that the right choice? Read more »
Inkling, the digital textbook software startup, has closed on $17 million in new funding to expand its software for converting college textbooks for use on the iPad. Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis says the money will be put toward meeting the “effectively unlimited demand” for its platform. Read more »
Janrain, the Portland, Oregon-based software-as-a-service company, has closed on $15.5 million in funding. Janrain, which makes a social log-in platform, plans to put the money toward general growth initiatives such as hiring and product development, CEO Larry Drebes said in an interview. Read more »
Confirming weeks of speculation, Twitter announced Monday it has closed on a “significant” amount of new funding led by Russia-based venture capital firm DST Global. The specific amount raised has not been disclosed, but various reports have pegged the round at $800 million. Read more »
ReadItLater, the mobile and web app that allows you to save webpages to read later, has has taken on $2.5 million. The company is using the funds to make the shift from “quiet giant” app developer to full-fledged tech startup, CEO Nate Weiner says. Read more »
It’s been clear for years now that cloud storage technology is hot — even Amazon, Google and Apple have made big moves into the area. But judging by the latest funding news out of storage startup CX, heavyweight investors are still bullish about newcomers to the space. Read more »
Venture capital investments continued to grow at a rapid clip during Q2 2011, with investments in Internet-specific companies rising to the highest quarterly level since 2001. But some industry experts are saying that the current level of VC activity may be unsustainable. Read more »
