Thefacebook raises $12 million
Thefacebook, the Palo Alto online social network that connects college students, has finished raising a $12 million first round of financing, VentureWire confirms (reg req).
The piece quotes Accel Partners‘ Jim Breyer, so this time it’s official. Breyer tells VentureWire that several consumer Internet and media companies had wanted to invest along with Accel, but that Accel wanted to keep the deal to itself. It is the sole investor.
(UPDATE: Check out Jeff Clavier’s trackback item below, for noteworthy stats on Thefacebook, which help make Accel’s interest understandable.)
Meanwhile, Minerva Networks, the Santa Clara open-platform IP television software company, said it raised $10.5 million in its eighth (!) round, VentureWire reports….
A long road for the eleven-year-old company, but it became profitable during the first quarter, and is reportedly hiring marketing and sales folk like crazy.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
