VentureBeat

Twilio adds SMS text support to its phone-to-Web API

Twilio is a company that offers an Internet API so companies can create Web applications that make or take phone calls. For website application developers, getting any sort of connection to telephones can be a show-stopper. Wireless carriers, which are enormous bureaucracies, can take forever to approve and support the connection. Twilio was founded in 2007 to solve that problem at an affordable price. Twilio offers Web app makers an API connection to phone...

Siri launches an iPhone personal assistant that actually works

The “personal assistant” label gets attached to a lot of websites and applications, but it’s always an exaggeration. Usually the service in question can only tackle a small slice of what a human assistant would do, such as organizing your emails. Plus, you can’t just tell the app what you want, you have to learn how to use it.

A new iPhone application called Siri has limitations too, but it’s already further along than the...

LensVector raises $30M for improved autofocus in camera phones

We’ve all gotten used to taking lousy, out-of-focus pictures with our camera phones. But LensVector hopes to change that with its chip-based autofocus technology.

Today, the company is announcing it has raised a round of $30 million, bringing its total raised to date to more than $50 million. Institutional Venture Partners led the round, joining existing investors Menlo Ventures, Samsung, Silicon Valley Bank, Mitsui, and Kodak.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is using the money...

ImageSpan and Arvato build a way to license content for online use

ImageSpan has teamed up with Arvato Finance Services to create a global clearinghouse for web site owners to license digital content such as photos and videos and then pay the proper owners of the property, regardless of what country they’re in.

The deal helps ImageSpan grease the skids for LicenseStream, a service that wraps a photo with tracking information so that the owner of the photo can figure out who is using it on the...

Disrupting Wall Street: Receivables Exchange raises $17M

We’ve covered plenty of companies that are trying to disrupt the finance industry and ease the flow of credit to small businesses and people. Here’s another finance-related startup to add to the list: Receivables Exchange, which lets small businesses trade their accounts receivable to cover short-term cash needs. The company raised $17 million in a third round led by Bain Capital Ventures this week.

Larger companies typically go to the commercial paper market where they...

Fashion4Home launches social furniture site in the US

Updated.

Furniture site Fashion4Home, which launched in Germany in November of last year, is launching in the US today. The site will offer US shoppers 80 models of contemporary furniture across 12 categories, including exclusive designs, at 30-50% lower than traditional retail prices [update: a spokesperson for the company, tells us its prices are actually 50-70% lower than retail]. The launch comes just a few days after China-based on-demand furniture maker Myfab announced its own...

The Founder Institute goes global

The Founder Institute, the entrepreneur training program that grew out from venture capitalist review site TheFunded, is taking its first steps outside the United States with the launch of four new locations.

The institute started in Silicon Valley, and has since added classes in San Diego, Washington, DC, Seattle, and New York. And now it’s announcing classes in Singapore, Paris, Los Angeles, and Denver. That brings the total up to nine cities, and that’s...

‘Cloud labor’ startup CrowdFlower raises $5M

CrowdFlower, the startup that helps companies find and manage workers for menial tasks, just announced that it has raised $5 million in a first round of institutional funding.

San Francisco-based CrowdFlower (whose chief executive, Lukas Biewald, is a friend of mine from college) is useful when you need basic tasks performed that can’t be automated by technology, such as tagging photos or categorizing the sentiments expressed in different messages on Twitter. There are a number...

Nanogram raises $1.2M for nanoscale materials

Nanogram, maker of nanoscale materials that can be used to build optical, electronic and energy storage devices, has brought in $1.2 million of an intended $4 million round of debt financing, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Milpitas, Calif., the company is backed by ATA Ventures, Masdar, RockPort Capital, Bay Partners, Mitsui Ventures, SBV Venture Partners, Global Cleantech Capital, Nagase & Co., Technology Partners, Harris & Harris Group, NanoStart Investments, TEL, Institutional...

Predictions for 2010: Tablets will fail, Google will pummel Microsoft

Updated: Apple tablet estimated price, AT&T’s projector-phone maker.

After plenty of posts chewing over 2009, VentureBeat is looking ahead with 10 predictions about the year to come, covering tech giants, tiny startups, and of course Twitter. As in the past, these predictions represent the thoughts of individual writers, not the VentureBeat Hive Mind.

Tablet computers will fail to become the Next Big Thing — They’ll get lots of attention, for sure. Apple’s tablet, unless the entire...

EC Roundup: A look at what’s to come in 2010

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:

Venture Capital 2010: Hot (and cold) sectors to watch – Grotech Ventures Steve Fredrick and Don Rainey, general partners, give their take on the VC outlook for this year – as well as their predictions on the areas that are likely to show the most significant growth and consolidation.

Eight trends to look for in 2010 – This year will not be as tumultuous as 2009, but will...

2009’s top 9 forward-looking cleantech investments

It was a big year for cleantech. After a dismal start in the first quarter, things picked up, leaving it in prime position to be one of the largest areas of investment in 2010. Overall, 2009 saw 356 deals totaling $4.85 billion, according to a new report released by Greentech Media. That’s six more deals than in 2008, but almost $3 billion less. Last year was a banner year for the sector, but this is...

Palantir seeking $1.2M to provide financial, government intelligence

Palantir, a firm that provides analytics software to government agencies and financial institutions to track everything from terrorist networks to investment opportunities, has just opened a $1.2 million round of rights and securities, according to Dow Jones VentureWire. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the company is backed by In-Q-Tel, the Founders Fund and Reed Elsevier Ventures. It landed $35 million in equity last month. In June, VentureBeat ran a detailed story on Palantir’s growth and ambitions....

The best original video games of 2009

Franchises. Sequels. Big summer movie games. Despite the glut of those familiar games that crowd retail shelves each year, gamers witnessed a respectable outpouring of original titles in 2009. Developers know that making a new intellectual property isn’t easy, and most publishers won’t take risks on them often. But creators, executives, and gamers all know the reward of making a successful original game is worth the most satisfying endeavor. After all, Call of Duty Modern...

80legs sets its web crawler free

When 80legs launched its web crawling service at DEMO (a conference co-produced by VentureBeat) last fall, chief executive Shion Deysarkar told me he wanted to place tools previously exclusive to web giants within the reach of smaller companies, so that someone could, for example, build their own “mini-Google.” Now he’s taking that  philosophy a step further, by offering 80legs services for free.

Why the change? In an email announcing the free service, 80legs says it...

Game startups raised $600.5 million in 2009, down 36 percent

Game startups continued to score big investments in 2009, but the amount of money raised in the year fell considerably compared to 2008.

Our analysis shows that 97 game startups raised $600.5 million in 2009, down 36 percent from a year ago. Last year we tallied 112 companies that raised more than $936.8 million, not counting fundings with undisclosed amounts.

This year was looking pretty weak until Zynga scored $180 million in a deal with...

Avnera and Best Buy team up on wireless home audio platform

Avnera and Best Buy are announcing today they are partnering to create a new generation of high-quality wireless home audio platform under Best Buy’s Rocketfish brand name.

The product will let you take audio from any music device, such as an Apple iPod, and broadcast the sound wirelessly to any speaker in the house. The speakers and music devices simply connect to small boxes with Avnera’s wireless audio chips, thereby getting rid of unsightly wires...

Future of Funding: An event about the brave new VC world (tickets here)

The venture capital industry we’ve known for the past decade is fading away, and a bunch of question marks hover over its future.

I’m pleased to announce that VentureBeat is partnering with the Founder Institute to kick off an event called Future of Funding, designed specifically to help address these questions.

Here’s the context: The number of VC firms is dwindling, and the amount they’re investing has declined, but that cash is the life-blood of...

Social game maker Zynga raises $180M from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies

The Russians are coming. First, Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies bought a $200 million stake in Facebook. Now that same investor has invested $180 million in Zynga, the fast-growing social game company.

The New York Times first reported the news, but it has since been confirmed by Zynga.

The investment no doubt gives Zynga a stratospheric valuation, and it shows that global investors are closely watching the social gaming industry that is profiting from giving...