With a lot of the focus in the mobile universe on Android, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and what is happening in the smartphone segment, it’s easy to… Read more at paidContent »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Amazon could have two sizes of tablet in mind for a launch: a seven-inch mod… Read more at paidContent »
Ad delivery monitor DoubleVerify has raised a large $33 million third round funding, which the company expects to use to build up its conten… Read more at paidContent »
Corporate venture capital plays a key role in the startup world, including the cleantech sector. In his Today in Green IT post, the curator of our research service, Adam Lesser, highlighted the role of corporate venture capital and pointed to an article in the Detroit Free Press […] Read more »
On Friday, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter’s Tasty Labs announced its first product to the public: Jig.com. Essentially, Jig allows people to post questions about anything they need — there are no categories yet, just one big stream — and allow anyone out there to answer them. Read more »
Ness has launched its debut iOS app, a “personal search engine” that aims to provide highly personalized restaurant recommendations. Essentially it’s like a Pandora for restaurants: From the start it’s almost creepily accurate with its recommendations, and the more you use it, the better it gets. Read more »
Embrane, which builds tools that will enable cloud providers to scale out networking services faster and with less complexity, has raised $18 million in second round funding. The networking sector is heating up as virtualization complicates communication between servers and data centers. Read more »
Turning renewable materials such as plants into useful chemicals seems a great idea, particularly when these green chemicals can replace compounds made from crude oil and natural gas. Genomatica, which filed for an initial public offering on Wednesday, certainly hopes investors will agree. 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 »
Plenty of web entrepreneurs share the same dream: build a great company and then cash in by selling it to Google, Facebook or another technology giant. But being successful is complicated affair, according to those who have seen those deals from the inside. Read more »
The online backup provider Carbonite priced its initial public offering last night despite the turmoil in the financial markets. And yes, it priced at $10 per share on the low end of its expectations, but it did make it out. Read more »
GreenSQL, an Israeli-based startup that offers software that secures databases has raised a second round of funding led by Rhodium and Atlantic Capital Partners. The funding will allow the company to expand to the U.S. and build products for NoSQL tools used today. Read more »
Greylock Partners, the VC firm backing companies such as Cloudera, Airbnb and ZipCar hired DJ Patil, formerly the chief product officer at Color, as a data scientist in residence. Greylock’s trying to help its companies monetize the rich vein of user data on the web. 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 »
A report examining the success rate of European venture capital compared to the U.S. sparked heated discussion. But some argue that even the best statistics ignore the real problems that face entrepreneurs and investors — no matter which side of the Atlantic they are on. 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 »
Despite growing competition from ReadItLater, which just raised $2.5 million, VC-backed Scribd and Apple, Instapaper’s Marco Arment is sticking to his now outside funding stance. He said even with the added company, he can make Instapaper work by focusing on his niche and executing. Read more »
Europe’s venture-backed startup industry is generally seen as smaller and less successful than its American equivalent. But new data collected by one group of German investors suggest that, pound for pound, Europe’s VCs might turn out to be a much better bet. 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 »
For years, the world of venture capital was largely shrouded in a veil of secrecy. But in the past 18 months, AngelList has started to change that in a big way. The social network for VCs and startups has grown impressively since its February 2010 debut. 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 »
Affectiva, a Massachusetts start-up spun out of the MIT Media Lab, has nabbed $5.7 million in Series B funding to help it pursue technology which helps recognize and measure human emotions. The company sees big opportunities in helping companies understand and gauge how people are feeling. Read more »
The second quarter brought a slew of greentech developments: We saw near-record investment in utility-scale clean energy projects but falling valuations for clean-energy stocks; big investments in solar thermal projects but struggling markets for solar photovoltaic systems; and rising private equity green investment while green VC took ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The common thread in greentech is: China. The country, which has been the world’s key growth engine for clean energy and green technology over the past few years, has begun to see some weakness, and that’s causing ripple effects through the global green economy. Read more »
In the last year Europe has witnessed an explosion of accelerator programs, with more and more launching all the time. But while it looks like good news for entrepreneurs, some worry whether the continent can really support such a glut of activity around startups. Read more »
Astrid is best known for making a popular web and mobile app that allows users to create to-do lists with social features. But with a new batch of funding from Google Ventures and others, the San Francisco-based startup has a much bigger picture in mind. Read more »
Web security startup CloudFlare has raised $20 million in a series B funding round. The San Francisco-based company, which has seen impressive growth since its September 2010 launch, makes a cloud-based software program that purportedly helps protect websites while also making them faster. Read more »
Underneath Twitter’s fun and trendy public image, the data streamed through the microblogging service is apparently worth some big bucks. DataSift, one of only two companies authorized to re-syndicate Twitter’s content using its “firehose,” on Monday announced a $6 million venture capital funding round. Read more »
Venture funds raised a mere $2.7 billion during the second quarter this year, and the industry trade association is sounding the alarm about a shrinking number of funds. What does it mean for the industry when the diversity of funds decrease? Read more »
Much is being made lately of a potential new bubble forming in the tech industry. But some say things aren’t quite as frothy as they’re being made out to be. Many of today’s most well-funded startups may soon find themselves without necessary second round investors. Read more »
Entrepreneurs like Steve Blank have spent a lot of time thinking (and writing) about how ineffective old-fashioned board meetings are for startups. LeanLaunchLab is a startup building software that could finally do away with the boardroom, or at least bring it into the 21st century. Read more »
After taking a place on Square’s board of director’s last week, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is now continuing his Silicon Valley blitz by joining venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as a part-time special advisor. Read more »
There’s been a storm over Skype’s private equity investors and their treatment of stock options, but is that storm a remnant of Silicon Valley’s cash-rich, founder-happy culture? Evidence from elsewhere would suggest that entrepreneurs just don’t know how good they’ve been getting it. Read more »
Foursquare has raised $50 million in a new funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, bringing Foursquare’s total venture capital investment to just over $70 million. The new backing will certainly come in handy as Foursquare works to keep its own edge in a growing space. Read more »
Ubiquiti, the wireless technology provider, filed IPO paperwork with the SEC recently, following hot on the heels of the Boingo and Fusion-io IPOs. Though VCs, including Sequoia’s Michael Goguen, are bullish on the activity in infrastructure, it’s too soon to say how it will pan out. Read more »
Cleantech investing may not have produced many big exits and returns so far, yet it keeps attracting investors who believe they can do better. Here comes the Cleantech Syndicate, a group of 11 families that plan to invest $1.4 billion over the next five years. Read more »
Sequoia will be crowdsourcing its job application process through Talenthouse, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that allows companies and artists to hold design contests for things like album art and logos. Sequoia isn’t an investor in Talenthouse– yet. Could this essentially be a public tire-kicking session? Read more »
