DreamFactory captures $452K to customize SaaS apps
DreamFactory Software, maker of software used to tailor software-as-a-service applications to the needs of specific enterprises, has brought in $452,000 in warrants and convertible promissory notes, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Campbell, Calif., the company has now raised more than $6 million and is backed by New Enterprise Associates.… Continue Reading
Eden Park scores $2M to bring LED alternative to market
Eden Park Illumination has officially entered the efficient lighting fray, scoring $2 million in new venture capital, and a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force, according to Dow Jones Clean Technology Insight. It is pitching a microplasma lighting fixture that could save more energy than incandescent bulbs, while remaining less expensive than light-emitting diodes.
Based in Champaign, Ill., the company plans to use the new money to commercialize its flagship product: a 36 square-inch … Continue Reading
IBM, Broadband up efficiency and drop costs with thin-film solar experiments
Recent advances in materials and design have resulted in thin-film solar modules that are more efficient and affordable than ever. Now IBM has developed its own thin-film product that uses common metals instead of pricey silicon. And a Stanford spinoff called Broadband Solar is using cheaper amorphous silicon coatings toward the same end.
Amorphous silicon coatings have been proven to up solar module efficiency by as much as 50 percent during advanced testing, according to … Continue Reading
Ngmoco raises $25M for iPhone games, acquires Freeverse
Making a bigger push into games on the iPhone, Ngmoco has raised $25 million in a third round of venture capital and also acquired iPhone game developer Freeverse.
The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners and included existing shareholders Kleiner Perkins, Norwest Venture Partners, and Maples Investments. To date, Ngmoco, founded in mid-2008, has raised $40.6 million.
That may seem like an astounding amount of money to raise in the mobile game business, where … Continue Reading
IBM, Johnson Controls join forces to make buildings smart and green
Information technology is quickly becoming the best weapon in the battle for energy efficiency. And there’s new evidence of this today: Battery maker and building automation company Johnson Controls has teamed up with IBM to bake IT expertise into green building designs.
What does this mean? When you integrate standard building operations (think fluorescent lighting, air conditioning and ventilation systems) with networks and sensors built by companies like IBM, a tremendous amount of new data … Continue Reading
Nielsen Company reports 82 percent increase in time spent on social networks
Consumer and digital information company The Nielsen Company announced today a set of impressive new social media statistics. According to the company’s blog, in December 2009 consumers spent 82 percent more time on social networking sites compared to the same period a year ago.
The average global consumer now spends more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, up from 3 hours in December 2008. In correlation, the overall … Continue Reading
Energy Dept. gives BrightSource, solar thermal a $1.4B boost
BrightSource Energy, one of the companies making solar thermal energy look better and better, has just landed a $1.37 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. It will use the funding to build three utility-scale plants pumping out 400 megawatts — enough to light up as many as 140,000 homes in California. These projects alone would double solar thermal’s presence in the U.S.
Based in Oakland, BrightSource has been talking about its large … Continue Reading
Wal-Mart to buy video streaming service Vudu
It’s time to add another huge player to the video streaming business. The New York Times is reporting that Wal-Mart has agreed to purchase Vudu, a startup that has been struggling to make a dent in the video streaming marketplace since 2007. The Times says the news comes from two anonymous sources close to the deal, and there still isn’t any official confirmation from reps at Wal-Mart and Vudu.
Wal-Mart is one of the world’s … Continue Reading
Twitter files its "TPS" reports: 600 tweets per second, 50 million a day
Microblogging network Twitter blew a hole through talk that its growth has come to a halt.
The company said that it’s seeing 50 million tweets a day, up from 35 million last fall. That’s 600 tweets per second, or ‘TPS’ in a joking reference to the movie “Office Space.” It’s also close to the 60 million status updates Facebook sees a day, despite its much larger base of 400 million users.
From the new statistics, … Continue Reading
Gore, Branson team up to keep drivers safe — and improve gas mileage
GreenRoad, maker of a dashboard system that judges how dangerous your driving is at any given time based on road conditions, speed and spatial orientation has just raised $10 million from a notable source: former vice president Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management. It joins existing backer Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund. The GreenRoad system mostly targets commercial fleet drivers. Why so much interest from green investors? GreenRoad’s system promotes fuel efficiency, too.
Pairing common technology … Continue Reading
Calibra takes in $9.3M for insulin delivery device
Calibra Medical, maker of a portable insulin delivery device invisible underneath clothing for the treatment of diabetes, has brought in $9.3 million of a targeted $32.3 million round of equity, options, warrants and securities, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Redwood City, Calif., the company is backed by Skyline Ventures, Canaan Partners, InterSouth Partners, Frazier Healthcare Ventures and Three Arch Partners.… Continue Reading
Social tool maker Jive hunts for a new CEO
Jive Software, a company that builds social networking tools for businesses, just announced that it’s looking for a new chief executive.
Dave Hersh, the outgoing CEO, is switching roles to become Portland, Ore.-based Jive’s chairman of the board, where he will take a less hands-on role in managing the company. Board member Tony Zingale is taking over as interim CEO while Jive looks for a permanent replacement. Zingale’s past experience includes serving as president and … Continue Reading
Fashion site Polyvore grabs former Google exec Singh Cassidy as CEO
Polyvore, which is like a do-it-yourself online fashion magazine, grabbed Google’s former Asia-Pacific and Latin America president Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as chief executive today. She most recently served as CEO-in-residence at Accel Partners.
Polyvore’s users make 30,000 fashion collages a day, sharing them and their favorite products and brands with friends. The site attracts 6 million unique visitors a month at a time when the underlying business model for high-end fashion magazines is being challenged … Continue Reading
Bloom Energy: Is its 'power plant in a box' worth all the hype?
Bloom Energy finally emerged from stealth mode, unveiling its “Bloom Box” fuel cell during a 60 Minutes segment with Lesley Stahl yesterday (click here for bonus videos). Capable of powering more than 100 homes while producing close to zero emissions, just one of these boxes could radically alter how people get their energy. But is it the godsend that some are saying it is?
Wireless and neatly compartmentalized, the Bloom Box could one day be … Continue Reading
Reply.com files for $60 million IPO
Ad market Reply.com has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $60 million in a public offering. The company is a marketplace for online sales leads, where companies can buy information about web users that have shown interest in buying their products. TechCrunch has a rundown of the company’s current financials, which include a 75 percent revenue increase in super-tough 2009.
Here’s what I wrote about Reply last October:
Targeted search … Continue Reading
Never fear, your beer-serving robot is here (video)
Maybe, if we’re headed for a utopian future where humans and robots live in peaceful co-existence, those robots would serve lots of beer.
That was the loopy idea behind BarBot 2010 last week, where inventors showed off mechanical creations that could mix a stiff Long Island iced tea or serve a cold one.
Some were expectedly silly. But others had a potential business model behind them, with the ability to mix dozens of complicated drinks … Continue Reading
Google overhauls ad server technology to boost monetization
Google has revamped its ad server technology to help itself and small publishers monetize ads on their sites.
The upgrades include more detailed forecasting data to explain which ads are valuable and where publishers’ revenues are coming from. Google also released a new application programming interface that lets publishers build their own apps to handle sales and workflow. Publishers can also open up ad space to bids from multiple networks.
Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 … Continue Reading
Macmillan announces DynamicBooks, allows instructors to edit digital textbooks
Publishing powerhouse Macmillan recently made headlines with its demands for pricing control on e-books sold through Amazon. To recap: Amazon at first dropped Macmillan’s books from its store (including print editions) because the publisher wanted to charge more than $9.99 for Amazon e-books. Amazon later begrudgingly accepted Macmillan’s demands, and moved towards an agency model which allowed the publisher to set its own e-book pricing (between $12.99 to $15.99).
Now the publisher is making news … Continue Reading
Open standards win again: Google drops Gears for HTML5
Google announced this weekend that it’s going to be ending support for Google Gears, its product for allowing offline access to applications like Gmail and Google Docs.
Instead of developing Gears, Google said in a blog post it will be focusing on using HTML5 to support offline capabilities from within the applications themselves, rather than needing an add-on like Gears.
Google will continue to support Gears, because “Gears has helped us deliver much-desired functionality, such … Continue Reading
Our latest GamesBeat@GDC speakers; contest deadline approaches
Disruptive companies are getting a lot of attention at our upcoming GamesBeat@GDC executive game conference. The event is set for March 10 in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference in the Moscone Convention Center. Today we’re announcing the following speakers have been added to our lineup:
Jules Urbach, CEO of Otoy and Lightstage. Urbach will join our panel on Disruptive Innovation and talk about the latest efforts at Otoy to create a games-on demand … Continue Reading
