VentureBeat

If you’ve never heard of Dragon’s Den, it’s a popular British TV reality series, where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to get funding from business experts — the “Dragons”. One of those Dragons, Doug Richard, a UK-based Californian and founder of investment research firm Library House got a name for himself as a particularly fastidious investor on the show. And now he’s selected 20 of the UK’s most promising web application start-ups to go and try their luck in Silicon Valley.

The initiative is called Web Mission 2008, and it offers subsidized participation in a one-week tour of the Valley, which begins next week. The program includes visits to Oracle, Bebo and the Web 2.0 Expo. For these British web start-ups, many with CEOs in their twenties, it’s a pretty alluring opportunity. The jury, led by Doug Richard, describe the selected companies as highly promising businesses that are well prepared to attract American investors and customers. “Some of these companies are as good as anything coming out of the Valley”, Richard said in a statement.

More than 100 British web companies applied for the 20 available slots, and the winners were announced the first week of March. The program is sponsored by the UK Trade & Investment Organisation, along with some companies from the private sector. The idea is that British web companies in their early stage have a lot to learn — and earn — from entering the US.

The companies span a broad range of web applications (see full list here). Most were founded a year or two ago. Here’s a quick taste of who’s coming:

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1) Yahoo launches brick-and-mortar internet cafes in Vietnam
2) Mozilla Corp., maker of the popular Firefox web browser, made $66 million in revenue in 2006
3) The internet still probably won’t be taxed in the US, through 2014
4) Adware company Zango buys comparison shopping service Smartshopper, a $9 million backflip
5) Tioti, social TV site, raises first round
6) Anti-aging product review site RealSelf.com launches, announces nearly $1 million in funding

Yahoo launches brick-and-mortar internet cafes in Vietnam – It’s an effort to bring the internet — and Yahoo, in particular — to people who otherwise might not have good access. More here.

Mozilla Corp., maker of the popular Firefox web browser, made $66 million in revenue in 2006 – Its main source of money is fees paid to it by Google in exchange for running Google as its first option in its search box. This revenue shows the browser’s increasing popularity: revenue was up 26 percent from 2005, with the browser now used by 120 million people around the world, or 13 percent of the market.

The internet still probably won’t be taxed in the US, through 2014 – The bill would prohibit state and local governments from taxing services that connect users to the internet. The Senate revised and then approved an earlier bill from the House; now the House needs to approve the changes before it goes to the White House to get signed and made law.

Adware company Zango buys comparison shopping service Smartshopper, a $9 million backflip – Bellevue-based Zango had bought HotBar, Smartshopper’s parent company, in 2006.

At that time, Oren Dobronsky, one of the owners of HotBar, bought SmartShopper back from Zango for $250,000 then tried and failed to raise funding for it. Almost one and a half years later, Dobronsky has sold it back to them for $9 million, reports Alarm Clock.

Zango is best known for its dastardly tactic of secretly installing software that pops up advertising windows on users’ computers, software that is extremely difficult to remove.

Tioti, social TV site, raises first round — The Seattle company allows users to find TV content, comment on it and recommend and share it with friends with things like an online widget. It has raised a first round of funding from Pond Venture Partners, amount unknown. The company launched this month after acquiring some 18,000 users during a testing period.

Anti-aging product review site RealSelf.com launches, announces nearly $1 million in funding – The Seattle company has raised money from a number of angel investors; release here.