Vroom! eBike maker Brammo raises $28 million

Electric motorcycle maker Brammo has raised $28 million in a new funding round led by Polaris Industries, the company announced today.

The money will help Brammo solidify its position in the market against electric bike rivals such as Zero Motorcylces, and to reach new customers. Brammo also produces and distributes the Brammo Digital Drivetrain, and the Brammo Power battery back, which can be used by manufacturers in their vehicles.

“We are excited to add … Continue Reading

Xignite raises $10M for cloud delivery of financial market data

Xignite is out to democratize access to financial data, which has exploded in the past decade with the onset of real-time, 24-hour trading. It is doing so by making that data more accessible via cloud computing and has just raised $10 million in a second round of funding, it announced today.

Financial experts once accessed the data exclusively from terminals such as Bloomberg machines or trading computers. But now wider swaths of people want to … Continue Reading

Major Samsung mobile executive leaves for Citigroup

Omar Khan, the Samsung exec who often introduced the world to Samsung’s latest Galaxy phones and tablets at events, has been hired to lead mobile initiatives for Citigroup.

“Omar Khan was a valued member of the Samsung Mobile US team but has decided to leave Samsung Mobile to pursue another opportunity,” Samsung said in a statement. “Omar is not leaving to join a competitor to Samsung, and we anticipate having a continued relationship with him … Continue Reading

Finance startup Yodlee hits 34M users, looks to a “FinApps” future

Yodlee, a company that powers personal financial management (PFM) solutions for major banks and finance portals, now has 34 million registered users worldwide, it told VentureBeat.

And it doesn’t look like Yodlee’s growth is going to slow down anytime soon, especially with the “FinApps,” or financial apps it launched last year, which give third-party developers the power to develop apps that can securely access financial data.

The 12-year-old company has been a leading force for … Continue Reading

OpenGamma raises $6M to kill old-school trading software

OpenGamma, a provider of analytics software for the financial services industry, announced today that it has raised $6 million in its second round of funding — even though it doesn’t have a product quite yet.

Traders can basically use OpenGamma to work with a suped-up version of Excel. The application programming interface (API) uses Excel and taps into multiple on-premise machines to quickly do calculations and access data without slowing down the machine a trader … Continue Reading

Ex-Googler Douglas Merrill takes on payday lenders with ZestCash

Douglas Merrill helped launch Google into the online-payments business with Google Checkout. Now he’s looking to help people afford to shop online — or anywhere, for that matter — with a new short-term lending startup called ZestCash, whose site is going live today.

His cofounder, and ZestCash’s chief risk officer, is Shawn Budde, a veteran of Sears, Capital One, and Citibank.

“The payday loan business is fundamentally abusive,” said Merrill. “You pay $60 and you … Continue Reading

Bank of America invests in mobile banking platform maker mFoundry

Douglas Merrill helped launch Google into the online-payments business with Google Checkout. Now he’s looking to help people afford to shop online — or anywhere, for that matter — with a new short-term lending startup called ZestCash, whose site is going live today.

His cofounder, and ZestCash’s chief risk officer, is Shawn Budde, a veteran of Sears, Capital One, and Citibank.

“The payday loan business is fundamentally abusive,” said Merrill. “You pay $60 and you … Continue Reading