FlowTown adds social media profiles to businesses' email lists

Flowtown, a company that connects data from social media sites with a company’s email list, announced Wednesday that it raised a seed round of funding for $750,000. The funds will be used to hire more people, especially developers familiar with Ruby, a coding framework for Web development.

The company targets small businesses looking to do more with their email lists. Once launched, customers upload their email lists, either manually or by importing them from mail … Continue Reading

Talk of 99-cent iTunes TV rentals points to revamped Apple TV

As if we needed more evidence that Apple is planning to launch a new Apple TV (which will most likely be called iTV), now there’s word that the company is preparing to let iTunes users rent TV shows for 99 cents, according to Bloomberg.

Three people familiar with the plan tell the site that Apple is in “advanced talks” with News Corp. to make content from Fox available, and it’s also in discussions with NBC, … Continue Reading

TaskRabbit gets $850K to cross errands off your to-do list

Life is busy. But if you don’t have time to go to the bank, would you trust a stranger to deposit a check for you? Users of TaskRabbit, a network of part-time personal assistants, do.

The site pairs assistants, called runners, with overtasked city dwellers. TaskRabbit has more than 300 runners, who have all undergone a background check, and they accept tasks online from thousands of users in Boston and San Francisco. Task requests include … Continue Reading

CollegeOnly just misses Scoop on college student social networks

The chances that two college-only social networks would launch in the same week seems pretty low. The chances that both networks would also be backed by big name investors seems even lower. But, that’s exactly what’s happened. Along with Scoop, a mobile app backed by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, CollegeOnly launched today backed by PayPal founder Peter Thiel (who’s also on the board of Facebook).

CollegeOnly has developed what it says is a photo-centric layout … Continue Reading

Qualcomm Services Labs unveils four cool mobile services startups

Qualcomm has formed a new incubator to launch next-generation mobile services and applications. Today, it unveiled four such startups at a press event in Palo Alto, Calif.

Isaac Babbs (pictured right), vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Services Labs, said the incubator will invest in new services and apps that tap the latest mobile technology. As such, the incubator will create the companies that create the demand for the mother ship’s mobile phone chips … Continue Reading

Social game maker CrowdStar battles Zynga in Japan with Drecom deal

Japan mobile social network market is becoming a new battleground where American social game companies will slug it out.

Social gaming firm CrowdStar is announcing today it has partnered with Japanese game studio Drecom to publish CrowdStar’s games in Japan. The deal follows Zynga’s alliance with SoftBank to create mobile social games in the $2 billion Japanese market.

CrowdStar launched its first social games in Japan in December. Now, CrowdStar and Drecom have teamed up … Continue Reading

Website builder DevHub gets users hooked by "gamifying" its service

Gamification is a hot buzz word these days. It means taking the mechanics of games and what makes them fun and then applying them to non-game applications. Evo Media Group, which runs the DevHub site that lets users create their own blogs and web sites, is the latest to do it with powerful results.

Before gamification, about 10 percent of users finished building their sites. Now, almost 80 percent of them do.

DevHub originally launched … Continue Reading

Roundup: Elevation funding Pandora, MiaSole scores solar supply deal, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Elevation investing in Pandora — Venture Capital firm Elevation Partners is about to sink some money into music discovery and application company Pandora, according to TechCrunch.

Keith Rabois jumps into Square — The startup, which allows people to pay with credit cards via their mobile devices, has snapped up PayPal alum and Silicon Valley man about town Keith Rabois.

NexTag on hiring spree — The comparison shopping site has just restocked … Continue Reading

DriverSide zooms ahead with $2M for car advice

DriverSide, a Web site that gives car advice to consumers, has raised $2 million of an expected $3 million in a third round of funding. Allegis Capital and Catamount Ventures participated in the round, according to a filing with the SEC.

Based in San Francisco, DriverSide helps car owners get estimates for auto repair, track recall notifications and get advice from mechanics. The site also calculates a car’s depreciation, allowing consumers to figure out the … Continue Reading

Motorola picks up 280 North, new app development platform

Motorola has acquired a new set of app development tools in the form of Y Combinator startup 280 North.

A Motorola official confirmed to TechCrunch that Motorola acquired the web-app developer to “help facilitate the continued expansion of Motorola’s application ecosystem.” The deal was reportedly worth $20 million.

280 North developed the Objective-J and Cappuccino app development platforms, designed for those with more limited and focused programming experience. The platforms were showed off in the … Continue Reading

Five new Y Combinator startups to watch

Incubator Y Combinator just held its latest Demo Day, where the current class of startups gave rapid-fire demonstrations to investors and journalists.

It’s tough to judge a company based on a short presentation, and that was especially true today, since YC incubated a record 36 startups in the current class. To squeeze everyone in, the presentations were limited to 2 minutes 30 seconds. But I’ve selected five companies that deserve a closer look.

These aren’t … Continue Reading

The problem with Dry Erase Girl: There's no business in hoaxes

The men who fooled the Internet with their hoax about a woman who quit her job via a dry erase board say it made some money for their site, TheChive.com — but that attention-grabbing stunts don’t make for a reliable business model for their company, Rober Media.

“TheChive is already an established and profitable brand with multiple advertising networks representing us,” said John Resig, who along with his brother Leo, owns the hugely popular picture … Continue Reading

Messaging startup Threadbox finalizes sale to MySpace

Threadbox, a startup that helped users organize their communication, announced today that it has finished a deal with MySpace, whereby MySpace will acquire some of its technology and hire some of its team.

We broke the news in July that talks were underway between MySpace and Threadbox. The Threadbox service shut down in early August, and cofounder and chief executive Michael Cerda (pictured) just published a blog post talking about the deal and apologizing to … Continue Reading

Network tap provider VSS Monitoring snags $20M

VSS Monitoring, a provider of network taps to monitor network traffic, raised $20 million on Tuesday in the company’s first round of venture-capital funding from Battery Ventures — five years after the company launched its first product.

Prior to Battery Ventures’ funding, VSS Monitoring had developed its product and sold it without outside investment. The $20 million funding from Battery Ventures is pegged to help promote research and development and expansion. Battery Ventures partner Neeraj … Continue Reading

Social news-reader Summify raises funds to solve information overload

Have you ever opened your RSS reader and felt like you’re gazing into the abyss at the gazillion unread items? Have you felt the guilty satisfaction of using the “Mark all as read” option? If so, Summify, a startup based in Vancouver, Canada, might be the answer to your prayers.

Fresh out of startup incubator Bootup Labs, Summify has just announced an undisclosed seed round of funding from Boris Wertz of W Media Ventures, an … Continue Reading

Email marketer ExactTarget acquires former reseller in bid to expand in Asia Pacific

Email marketing services provider ExactTarget acquired its reseller mPath Global on Tuesday for an undisclosed amount in a bid to expand its services in Asia and the Pacific. mPath has since been re-launched as ExactTarget Australia.

ExactTarget offers marketing and market research tools that use text messaging, voice messaging, social networks and websites to reach potential customers. Expedia.com, Fairfax Digital and Best Buy are among its clients.

All former mPath employees have accepted positions in … Continue Reading

Cloud computing startup 6fusion raises $3M

IT service provider 6fusion raised $3 million in its first round of venture capital funding led by Intersouth Partners.

The funding is pegged to help develop 6fusion’s senior executive team, currently led by CEO John Cowan, a graduate of Queen’s University at Kingston and a Canadian citizen.

Katrin Burt and Mitch Mumma of Intersouth will join 6fusion’s board of directors as part of the deal. Intersouth is also a partner of the Council for Entrepreneurial … Continue Reading

Dell's Aero Android smartphone hits AT&T today — for some reason

Dell’s Aero Android phone has been a long time coming — but unfortunately for the company, the longer it has waited to release the device, the less appealing it has become. Originally rumored for release some time in the second quarter of this year, the Aero is available today for $99.99 on AT&T with a two-year contract.

It’s a good thing the phone is retailing at such a low price, because there’s certainly not much … Continue Reading