Smule to make beautiful music with $12M in funding

Music app maker Smule today announced a new funding round of $12 million to support future expansion plans, and to hire more employees.

Smule is the company behind the I am T-Pain autotune app, Ocarina, a very early hit on the iPhone, Glee Karaoke, and many more.

“This gives us some confidence we should put our foot on the gas,” Smule co-founder and chief executive officer Jeff Smith told VentureBeat. Smith said the money will … Continue Reading

Quantance raises $11M to create efficient power supply chips for mobile phones

Quantance has raised $11 million to create faster, more efficient power supply chips for 4G mobile phones.

The chips, which took more than six years to develop, could play a huge role in making smartphones more powerful and have longer battery lives.

“Most of these new phones operate at very high speeds and so they need a power supply that operates at high speeds also,” said Vikas Vinayak, chief executive of Quantance, in an interview. … Continue Reading

Encore Career Institute raises $15M to educate Baby Boomers

A new online education startup for Baby Boomers, The Encore Career Institute in Los Gatos, announced today that it has landed $15 million in first round financing co-led by VC firms Granite Ventures and InterWest Partners.

Founder and CEO Steve Poizner (pictured), a Republican politician with roots in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur, was previously elected California’s Insurance Commissioner. He was also a candidate for the California gubernatorial election in 2010 but lost the June … Continue Reading