We track fund raising activities associated as part of our coverage of a company’s lifecycle. In addition to funding announcements, we look at macro (and micro) VC trends including sector by sector breakdown and the IPO markets.
Startups looking to disrupt the traditional energy industries — oil, coal, gas-burning cars — need to have more than just innovative technology. They need a team and a plan in place that can scale their technologies to compete on the massive scale needed. Read More »
Facebook on Thursday debuted a new “listen with” feature that lets groups of people listen to the same song at the same time. The new feature is most directly comparable to turntable.fm, which lets people create music listening rooms and share DJ duties with their friends. Read More »
Last year, venture capital investment in “true” cloud computing companies constituted more than a quarter of overall Internet deal volume and more than a third of Internet investment dollars, according to new research from CB Insights. Read More »
Despite many challenges — from disappointing EV sales to the headaches in subsidizing solar — the cleantech sector survived 2011. Where is it headed next? It is clear that early-stage companies and ideas hold the keys to future growth, much like the first wave of Internet …
Fewer venture firms raised more money during 2011. A smaller industry with more money, plus an active angel community that can put money in early stage deals, means entrepreneurs are likely to face the biggest fundraising challenge at the Series B round. Read More »
Cleantech venture capital and corporate investing for the full 2011 year was up in terms of overall dollar amounts compared to 2010, according to the research firm The Cleantech Group, but large follow-on rounds for matured companies continued to dominate the year. Read More »
GrabCAD, a specialist in open-source CAD software, has netted $4.2 million in new funding from its existing VC backers. It has also added Matrix Partners’ David Skok to its board, according to a new blog post by GrabCAD President Hardi Meybaum. Read More »
A recent post by Andrew Clay Shafer raised doubts about the abilities of growing number of incubators that are imitating the likes of 500 Startups. The key qualities of these incubators are no different than incubators from 1999, as an old Forbes.com piece of mine shows. … Read More »
Boston-area tech incubator Adverplex is reborn as Cogo Labs and is starting to talk itself up. The 30-person shop, which backed CourseAdvisor and Autotegrity, is also on the hunt for software, analytics and data warehousing talent. Read More »
It’s not 1982 anymore. Twenty-nine years after co-founding Sun Microsystems — a company that once boasted a $200 billion market cap — McNealy is a known commodity in the Valley, and that makes life a lot easier when it’s time to launch a new venture. Read More »
2011 has been all about personalized mobile apps, and Evernote has benefited handsomely: In the past 12 months, the personal note-taking software company grew its user base from 6 million to 20 million. GigaOM talked to CEO Phil Libin about the growth and Evernote’s 2012 outlook. Read More »
Cloudability, a startup that bills itself as “Mint.com for the cloud,” has raised $1.1 million in seed funding for its service that helps companies keep an eye on their cloud-computing spending. It recently let one user spot an exploit that could have cost the company dearly. Read More »
Jawbone, a San Francisco-based company that makes mobile lifestyle accessories such as Jambox and Up, a personal health device has raised another $40 million in new funds from Deutsche Telekom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, private investor Yuri Milner and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Read More »
Every day, it seems like there’s another bland press release about startup seed funding. So when Buffer closed on $400,000, it wanted to announce it differently — by explaining exactly how the process happened. It’s a fun read, and a good lesson for other startup founders. Read More »
As a startup, you might think the A-list employees are beyond your grasp. But Scott Weiss, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, explains why you should reach for the stars – and why they might jump at the opportunity. 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 »
Most venture capitalists obsess on the latest shiny object for youngish consumers. That’s remarkably shortsighted. The aging U.S. population is a potential gold mine for entrepreneurs that can build technologies to help this huge population remain active and stay in their homes as long as possible. Read More »
Right now, some of the most reputable names in Silicon Valley, including Y Combinator and Wired magazine are offering up their attention to a startup pitch from the highest monetary bidder. It’s not as shady as it sounds, though: It’s all in the name of charity. 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 »
Bessemer Venture Partners’ Byron Deeter shares his firm’s Cloudscape, a visualization of the leading companies in the cloud computing revolution, which Bessemer presented at its annual CEO Conference on cloud computing. 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 »
Some of Europe’s leading investors gathered in Italy last week to discuss the problems and opportunities faced by startups across the continent. But what did they actually think? And what does it mean? Read More »
There’s a widespread perception that cleantech venture capital must be tanking compared with VC overall. That perception is wrong. 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 »
Startup Vidyard has raised $1.65 million in an effort to grow its platform for enterprise video distribution. The company hopes to take on existing companies like Brightcove and Ooyala as a way to manage, measure and monetize videos that businesses put on the Internet. Read More »
Despite a tough economy, technology investors expect to fund more cloud-computing-related technologies, according to new research. More than half of those surveyed by Peachtree Capital predicted investment growth in cloud technology going forward. Read More »
New Relic, the cloud-based startup that has become synonymous with the term “lean startup,” has raised a $15 million expansion round. It actually closed a $10 million round in October 2010 and has now raised $35 million in total, the venture funding belies New Relic’s success. Read More »
Marketo, a SaaS startup focusing on revenue performance management, has raised a $50 million round with Battery Ventures leading the way. Marketo has been on a roll, totaling $107 million in VC investment, and now earning upward of $40 million a year in revenue. Read More »
According to a Harvard Business School professor, cloud startups can thank a copyright law decision for increased funding in the past few years. The case’s timing certainly aligns with an uptick in cloud funding, but it’s tough to see how the two are related. Read More »
Although it appears significant venture capital investment in Platform-as-a-Service startups is drawing to a close, Standing Cloud was able to raise another $3 million, it announced on Thursday. The money comes from Foundry Group and Avalon Ventures, bringing Standing Cloud’s total investment to $8 million. Read More »
It’s easier than ever to start a company, according to Sequoia Capital General Partner Michael Moritz, but there’s still the question of how companies will stand the test of time. That was one takeaway from his chat with Om Malik at GigaOM RoadMap on Thursday. 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 »
Accel Partners is trying to capitalize on the popularity of big data with a $100 million Big Data Fund. The VC firm’s office across the globe will invest in applications that help form an ecosystem around existing big data building blocks such as Hadoop and NoSQL. 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 … Read More »
Hadoop isn’t the only thing going in big data, but it’s driving the bus at this point and it seems to have a reverse Midas touch: everything that touches it turns to gold. The latest to experience this is Cloudera, which has raised another $40 million. 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 »
Do startups create jobs, or more accurately, do they create jobs the way they used to? In a House hearing Wednesday, a researcher said the number of startups created have been declining since 2006, and when they are created they tend to generate fewer jobs. 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 »
Exclusive: There are lots of great summer internships at Silicon Valley startups. But top engineering students often pass them up for the money and name recognition companies like Google can provide. So Kleiner Perkins has partnered with InternMatch to attract top-flight students to its portfolio companies. … Read More »
Michael Moritz, general partner at white shoe venture firm, Sequoia Capital is going to be a headline speaker at our GigaOM RoadMap conference, on November 10 in San Francisco. Moritz, along with other tech luminaries will help us figure out how connectedness will change our future. … 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 »
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 »
Sevin Rosen is trying to raise a tenth fund, according to Al Schuele, a partner with the Texas-based venture capital firm. Sevin Rosen hasn’t been big since about 2006, when it stopped raising money on a proposed fund and returned money back to investors. Read More »
Although the majority of API attention has centered on consumer Web services, an emerging cadre of startups are focused on infrastructure and business processes. Robin Vasan, managing director at the venture capital firm Mayfield Fund, gives an overview of the potential infrastructure categories and disruptive companies.
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