Readers, I think we need to talk. Communication is really important, and I’m just feeling like I need more ways to connect with you.

Good thing investors dumped millions into communications-based companies today. We saw $10 million go to a texting app that competes with companies such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Texting over anything but data is so passé anyway.

On the flip side of communication, Skyword got $6.7 million to communicate your brand through stories. PR through content is wildly popular now-a-days, but do people actually trust what they’re reading?

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Check out more about these companies below:

MessageMe nabs $10M from Greylock, Google, & others to take on WhatsApp

Better watch out, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Hot messaging app MessageMe has just raised $10 million in its first round of funding, the company confirmed today. MessageMe offers iOS and Android apps that send rich messages to friends, family, and groups. The app also lets you share YouTube videos, iTunes tracks, voice recordings, emoticons, and other things you might not share over traditional text messaging. MessageMe has risen quickly in status; it only just raised seed funding about a month ago. At that time, the service said it had one million users. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Skyword takes off with $6.7M for content marketing

Consumers these days expect their favorite brands to tell a story, and Skyword helps them tell it. Skyword has announced closing $6.7 million in growth financing for its content marketing solutions. This Boston-based startup provides agencies, brands, media, and retail customers with a platform to publish content and tools to distribute it effectively. It has a database of more than 20,000 professional writers that publishers can use to recruit and manage freelancers and keep track of workflow. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Doc talking via Shutterstock

Mark it on your calendars: Today, no social media, photo-sharing, casual gaming, consumer-y app-y startups announced funding raises.

No, for today belongs to cloud companies, finance companies, data companies — the solid, boring stuff that stands half a chance of seeing us through this bubble with slightly less egg on our collective face than last time around.

As the fella said, “He that outlives this day and comes safe home will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d, and rouse him at the name of Cloudant!” Or something like that.

And the winners are:

Cloudant pulls down a $12M round

Hot database-as-a-service startup Cloudant has raised $12 million in its second round of funding, the company announced today. The Boston-based startup was founded in Cambridge, Mass., in 2008 by three MIT physicists. The team struggled to move and analyze multi-petabyte data sets. So they ended up creating what would become Cloudant. Cloudant offers a highly scalable database-as-a-service that makes it possible to store, access, and analyze your operational data in the cloud. In the layers of the cloud, Cloudant becomes a “data layer” that can be run on top of most infrastructure-as-a-service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, SoftLayer, Microsoft Azure, and Joyent. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

GraphLab gets $6.75M

GraphLab, an open source, distributed graph computation framework, has announced a $6.75 million funding round led by Madrona Venture Group and NEA. Seattle-based GraphLab, Inc. is building a commercial product the open-source project, applying advanced machine learning to massive graph datasets. “Data has the ability to make our lives better, whether applied to public health, economics, or suggesting the perfect song. But as the complexity of data sets grows, the need for entirely new ways of thinking about them has grown as well,” said Carlos Guestrin, GraphLab CEO, in a statement on the news.

TransferWise secures $6M

London-based TransferWise has just earned the distinction of sealing the first European deal by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. The startup specializes in peer-to-peer international money transfers, undercutting traditional banks with its crowdsourced currency exchange. A previous investment round in 2012 brought in $1.3 million from IA Ventures, Index Ventures, and a group of angels.

SugarSync sweetens its deal with another $3M

Dropbox competitor SugarSync just closed an additional $3 million in funding, according to an SEC filing. A spokesperson for the company just confirmed the debt raise and said it would be used to bolster the product development team. The funding was brought in through an existing investor — likely Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s Andreas Stavropoulous, whose name appears on the Form D. The company has not raised funding since February 2012, when it pulled in $15 million to grow and define itself in the crowded cloud storage market. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

WegoWise gets $3M

WegoWise, a company that uses utility data to help owners and managers track their utility use and encourage energy efficiency investments, has taken $3 million in add-on funding from existing investor Boston Community Capital. Right now, a company rep tells us, the startup is focusing on apartment/condo complexes as well as commercial real estate. The startup’s platform tracks and compares utility use across large portfolios of buildings to find energy-wasting elements. “Think of it as Mint.com, but for utility data instead of finances,” the rep said.

Pangea Payments takes $1M in oversubscribed seed round

Money-transfer startup Pangea Payments wants to “help underbanked people around the globe.” To that end, the Chicago-based startup has taken an initial million-dollar funding round from OCA Ventures, Origin Ventures, i2A Fund, and FireStarter Fund. Angel investors also participating in this round include former Navteq CEO Larry Kaplan, Cloverhill Bakery exec Bill Gee, and Potbelly Sandwich Works founder Bryant Keil. Pangea’s multiplatform service (including mobile, web, and retail options) lets users send money to anyone, anywhere around the world, at any time.

Image credit: NBC

Today’s funding announcements were all over the board, from big data to e-commerce to online education to a teensy little to-do-app-done-good.

Let’s get down to business:

Rocket Internet’s Namshi gets a $13M boost

Rocket Internet can’t stop churning out e-commerce startups in emerging markets. Today the Berlin-based incubator program announced that Namshi, its Middle Eastern online fashion retailer, has raised $13 million led by Summit Partners to sustain growth. Namshi features clothing, accessories, and footwear for women, men, and kids from over 550 international and local brands. Like Zappos, the sites offers free shipping and a flexible return policy. The site serves the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Lucid Works strikes a $10M deal

Big data startup LucidWorks has raised $10 million to help enterprise companies use multistructured data to reap more revenue. LucidWorks product suite contains two development platforms that enable organizations to search, discover, and analyze their data. LucidWorks Search is built on top of Apache Lucene/Solr open-source search project and seeks to simplify and improve the process of building embedded search applications. The other product, LucidWorks Big Data, then helps businesses make sense of the data. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Logical Choice chooses $5M

Ed-tech startup Logical Choice Technologies has raised $5M in funding from Vert Capital Corp, which will assume a controlling stake. The Atlanta-based company is known for its solutions to help integrate classroom technologies with new digital tools. Among other products, the team has developed an augmented reality reading program for early learning.

Any.do gets $3.5

Popular to-do list application Any.Do has raised $3.5 million in new funding to continue helping people get things done no matter the device. San Fransico-based Any.Do competes closely with apps like Wunderlist, Clear, and Remember the Milk. I love Any.Do’s design and feature set. It’s free to use, simple, inputs tasks with your voice, and syncs across syncs iOS, Android, and Chrome apps. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

X marks the spot: Matrix closes Fund X

Matrix Partners closes its tenth fund, pooling together $450 million for investments in consumer Internet, mobile, enterprise, software and IT infrastructure startups in the US. The firm was founded way back in 1977. 50 of its portfolio companies have gone public and 75 have been acquired. The firm has offices in Silicon Valley and Boston, as well as in India and China. Notable investments include Apple, Gilt, Huddle, HubSpot, JustFab, and Zendesk.

e.Bricks stacks up $100M fund for startups

Brrazilian media corporation RBS Group has expanded its operations into startups with a new $100 million fund. The fund will be run by e.Bricks, an investment arm in the digital sector of the RBS Group, and will make between 10 and 15 investments in early stage companies per year. The fund will focus on digital media, e-commerce, and mobile technology. The portfolio currently has eight companies. The Brazilian landscape for startups and venture capital is growing fast and RBS wants to position itself at the center of this activity.

Online lender AvantCredit secures $34M in funding

AvantCredit, a Chicago-based consumer e-lender, yesterday announced the completion of a $34 million round of equity and debt funding from August Capital and Victory Park Capital. AvantCredit offers personal loans to the tune of $1,000 to $10,000. AvantCredit makes use of customer attributes such as credit, social media, and user action data, to offer low interest rates to a wide range of customers. This is its first round of funding, including a $9 million Series A equity investment. The round was led by August Capital, with participation from asset management firm, Victory Park Capital. In addition, Victory Park also issued a $25 million credit facility to the e-lender, taking the total funding to $34 million. Read more on VentureBeat.

Cloud data-protection firm PerspecSys raises $12M, plans for global sales push

PerspecSys, the Toronto-based cloud data protection company, has closed $12 million in its second round of funding. The company plans to use the capital injection to further develop global sales and marketing efforts and continue product development. The company supports a variety of popular cloud-based applications, such as Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand, while using validated encryption solutions from companies like Voltage Security, McAfee, SafeNet, Symantec, and RSA. This round of funding was co-led by new investors Paladin Capital Group and Ascent Venture Partners. They were joined by return backer Intel Capital and other institutional investors. Total investment in PerspecSys now totals over $20 million. Read more on VentureBeat.

SendUs launches with $17M to help brands harness user videos

SendUs launched out of stealth mode with $17 million in funding from private investors today. The company provides a video submission and management platform so brands can use video content created by fans to their own advantage. Brands put out a call for content and consumers can submit their own videos for review and possible publishing. The Los Angeles company works with brands like FremantleMedia (creators of American Idol), Singapore Airlines, Peugeot, Nextel International, Sierra Club, and the Susan G. Komen foundation. Read more on VentureBeat.

With $3.2M in funding, Dekko unveils a clever tech to insert animations into the real world

Dekko is launching an “operating system for the real world,” which is a fancy way of saying a new augmented-reality system. Dekko inserts animated images such as cartoon characters into the real world, where they can interact with it. The company is announcing this technology for the first time today. San Francisco-based Dekko is also announcing that it has raised $3.2 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Echo Ventures, and others. Read more on VentureBeat.

Los Angeles startup Yekra nets $3M for its digital movie distribution platform

Digital entertainment distribution startup Yekra has raised $3 million in new funding to give studios a way to distribute DRM-protected content without it being burdensome, the company announced today. Los Angeles-based Yekra’s goal is to help distribute movies online with the full blessing of Hollywood. Movies will have copyright protections but still be available to be viewed through the web, smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs.The new funding was led by Las Vegas angel investor Maurice Gallagher, with participation by Bray Capital, Shay O’Brien, and Michael Rogers. Read more on VentureBeat.

Beyond Verbal secures $2.8M, detects human emotions and character through voice recognition

Beyond Verbal Communications, an Israel-based startup that’s just pulled in a $2.8 million seed round of funding, uses what it calls Emotions Analytics to determine someone’s emotions and character traits in real-time as they speak. Beyond Verbal licenses its technology for use in consumer applications. The first mobile application using its API will launch in the near future, and Beyond Verbal is building a web tool that allows people to use the platform to analyze voices. The company launched in May 2013. The funding was led by angel investor Kenges Rakishev, and new VC Genesis Angels. Read more on VentureBeat.

MadeiraCloud nabs $1.5M from Sequoia for AWS-based visual cloud management

Amazon Web Services visualization startup MadeiraCloud has raised $1.5 million from Sequoia Capital its first round of funding with the promise of helping developers better understand how their applications fit into the cloud. MadeiraCloud offers a relatively painless drag-and-drop tool for designing, provisioning, monitoring, and managing an application stack and cloud resources inside AWS. The company launched its public beta in June 2012 and claims to service small startups all the way up to teams within large enterprises. It now oversees management of more than $25 million worth of AWS resources. Read more on VentureBeat.

Workspace solutions platform LiquidSpace raises $1.3M in follow-on funds

LiquidSpace, the two-pronged workspace solutions platform, announced today that it has raised $1.3 million in follow-on investment to the $6 million raised in the company’s second round of funding that closed earlier this year. The San Francisco-based company serves two sets of customers: modern professionals who use the platform to book office or meeting spaces instantly, and companies who employ LiquidSpace to manage their workforce’s workspace needs. It boasts over 2,000 workspaces and meeting rooms in over 250 U.S. cities. The follow-on investment comes from two strategic partners: Steelcase and CBRE Group. Both have global experience in workplace strategy and commercial real estate. Read more on VentureBeat.

RingDNA releases mobile call tracking app to ‘make sales reps smarter’ 

RingDNA released a voice communications platform today that provides sales reps with relevant, contextual data when they need it to make the most of their sales calls. The company also announced raising a $1.9 million seed round. This iPhone app integrates with Salesforce, Twilio, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and company news feeds. When a call comes in, RingDNA delivers CRM data, social media activity, and behavioral marketing information to eliminate “blind spots” and give reps “actionable business opportunities” in real time. The funding came from angel investors. Read more on VentureBeat.

Plated serves up $1.4M from investors

We’d all love to whip up a delicious home cooked meal on-the-fly, but then a lack of time, inspiration, and motivation get in the way. Plated eliminates excuses by making home-cooking as easy as possible. Each week, the startup posts a selection of chef-designed meals. You choose the meals you want and order online. Plated delivers all the ingredients to your door with everything portioned out and all you have to do is put it together. Pricing is on an a la carte or monthly subscription basis. According to a report in TechCrunch, Plated has raised a $1.4 million seed round led by ff Venture Capital along with TechStars and angel investors.

Photo Credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

Trulia buys Market Leader for $355 million

Yes, that’s actually a company named Market Leader, the phrase is not just a hopeful description. Trulia, the real-estate marketplace, announced the deal today.

Market Leader provides a suite of software solutions that real estate professionals use to manage their business online. Products include a website-builder, tools for lead generation tools and marketing, and contact management. The combined marketplace will have 46,000 premium subscribers, which the company said is more than any other online real estate marketplace. This deal means Trulia can provide an “end-to-end solution” for these professionals.

More details here.

Microsoft offering $1B for Nook?

This deal is not yet a deal, but a rumor: Microsoft may be attempting to buy Nook’s digital media and tablet business. More details …

NowThisNews raises $4.8M

NowThisNews, a video-news startup from the brains of former Huddington Post execs, has just raised a healthy round of institutional funding. The $4.8 million round (out of a total $6 million in equity the startup is attempting to raise, according to SEC documents) comes from Oak Investment, Lerer Ventures, Bedrocket, and new investor SoftBank Capital.

Here’s the full story.

HealthTap Secures $24 Million Series B

Health Q&A startup HealthTap has raised $24 million in its second round of funding and added former Square COO Keith Rabois to its board of directors, the company said today.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HealthTap offers a popular service for doctors to answer questions from everyday folks. More than 38,000 accredited doctors in the U.S. are on the platform and more than 8 million unique visitors connect with those doctors each month via apps for smartphones, tablets, and the web.

Full details here.

Octopus leads £2m funding round into TrialReach

Octopus today announced that it has led a £2 million ($3.1 million U.S.) investment round into TrialReach, an online platform that is transforming clinical trials by connecting patients with healthcare companies and research organisations to make new treatments available more quickly and efficiently. Octopus is investing alongside existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, which first invested in TrialReach in 2011.

Axiologix announces $7.5 Million preferred equity investment

Axiologix, Inc., a technology services company focused on delivering cloud-based products and services announced today that it has entered into a $7.5 million Preferred Equity Investment with Ironridge Technology Co. The company plans to use the proceeds from this investment to fund operational growth, make strategic and immediately accretive acquisitions, and to pay down remaining debt over time.

JumpStart invests $250,000 in eFuneral

End-of-life planning startup eFuneral has received a $250,000 investment to help people find resources online for funeral planning including funeral home reviews, estate planning, and cemetery information.

“This industry is completely antiquated,” Belsito told VentureBeat. “We saw a big gap and decided to make a better solution.”

More details here.

photo credit: DerrickT via photopin cc

In a rare twist, the majority of startups closing funding rounds today are targeted to consumers. We’ve recently seen business-focused tech dominate the deals channel.

Bitcoin, crowdfunding, foodie, usability testing, mobile events, and community sports startups landed a round of venture capital and/or angel investment. Apologies for the torrent of buzz words!

Without further ado…

Foodpanda suited up with $20M to conquer online food delivery

Foodpanda, based in Berlin, has raised $20 million to continue expanding its delivery service around the globe. In the past few months, Foodpanda and its affiliated brand hellofood entered 15 new countries, and it’s now active in 27 different markets. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

CircleUp raised $7.5M to feed hungry consumer-products startups with capital

CircleUp is using crowdfunding to get your favorite snacks onto store shelves. This startup, which connects up-and-coming consumer product businesses with accredited investors, has raised $7.5 million to build out the platform. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Chute raised $7M and gets its first dose of user-generated advertising

San Francisco startup Chute has raised a second round of institutional funding: $7 million led by Foundry Group with participation from existing investors Freestyle Capital and U.S. Venture Partners. It also announced today the advent of Chute Ads, which use “real-time,” user-generated content as commercial fodder for big brands. Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

FTBpro got $5.8M to bring its fan generated sports platform to new markets

FTBpro, a UK-based fan generated platform for online football (soccer in the U.S.) has secured $5.8 million financing from Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures, as the startup continues to expand into key geographical markets. The platform is driven by 1,000 regular contributors, generating over 200 daily articles in English, Spanish, German and Italian.

Coinbase got $5 million in the biggest funding for a Bitcoin startup

The online platform that lets people buy a virtual currency called Bitcoin nabbed $5 million from Union Square Ventures. In April, the founders told the Wall Street Journal that it has grown to 116,000 members who converted $15 million of real money into Bitcoin.

Canada’s mobile event app QuickMobile pulled in $3.2M

QuickMobile, a provider of mobile event app solutions, announced that it has closed a $3.2 million round of funding led by existing investors, BDC IT Venture Fund and Vancity. The startup will use the funding to expand internationally.

YouEye nabbed $3M for its new approach to usability testing

Customers like Airbnb and Eventbrite are using the technology to watch testers browsing their websites through webcam, and they can listen in to any feedback. Today it closed a $3 million angel round for its “UX in the cloud.” Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Today in tech funding news, we saw a string of smaller deals at or under $1 million.

But are these pity rounds that will provide a few months of runway to struggling teams in competitive markets? Or are they kindling capital that will spark new fires of innovation, eventually engulfing the tech world in the hot, hot flames of profit?

Time will tell. For now, we’re just reporting the figures:

Fastback grabs a fast $15M

Fastback Networks has raised $15 million to save mobile data networks from total collapse. OK, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but Fastback has created radio technology to transfer mobile data at fast speeds so that companies can expand and plan mobile networks to handle huge voice and data networking loads in the future. Fastback’s technology could be a key piece in mobile networks that can transfer data as quickly as land-based infrastructure such as cable modems. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Panna raises $1.35M

Panna, a digital cooking magazine for iPhone and iPad, has raised $1.35 million to make the connection between chefs and home cooks even stronger. An issue is released every months and contains 13 seasonal video recipes from the participating chefs. The emphasis is on home cooking, so each chef guides the user step-by-step through their favorite recipes in a home kitchen environment. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Unifyo raises $700K

Unifyo’s founder Ben Wirtz writes today to share some good news: His company has closed a $700,000 seed round from the likes of Ivan Mazour, EC1 Capital, and the Firestarter Team (which itself was founded by ex-Googler Anil Hansjee). Unifyo is a sales tool that combines social media, email, and customer relationship management tools; Wirtz said, “We just re-released our Exchange integration into beta, which means we’re now seriously going after SMEs [small and medium-size enterprises], not only startups. Box and Zendesk have been integrated too.”

VeryLastRoom gets $523K

VeryLastRoom, a French startup, writes to tell us it’s closed a €400,000 round, about $523,000, for its same-day hotel booking app. The iOS app first launched nine months ago at LeWeb’s London conference. Investors include Alain de Mendonça, founder of French travel agency Promovacances; Didier Blaise, founder of French tire-seller Allopneus.com; Laurent Therezien, former VP of Accor’s Lastminute.com; Laurent Benhamou, founder of micropayment platform AlloPass; and VC firms Pole Capital and Generis Capital Partners.

Aireum/Conspire raises seed round of $100K, more to come?

As it inches toward its first birthday, Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup Aireum (also known as Conspire) is showing signs of life with the SEC, claiming a wee $100,000 investment today in a Form D. Founded by Stanford grad and former attorney Alex Devkar, Conspire aims to help users understand and manage their networks of email contacts. The product is not yet publicly available.

Lending Club shuffles around shareholders to make room for Google

Google has taken a minority stake worth in online investment community Lending Club. The deal was part of a $125 million secondary transaction where existing investors sold portions of their shares to new investor Google and previous investor Foundation Capital. No new money is going into the company, rather it is a reshuffling of equity to allow room for Google on the board. Lending Club is now valued at $1.55 billion, which represents a threefold increase in 12 months. Read more on VentureBeat.

SJF Ventures hits a triple with its third fund

Venture capital firm SJF Ventures closed its third fund with more than $90 million in capital, which is more than three times the size of its previous $28 million fund. SJF Ventures investments focus in clean tech, sustainability, and tech-enhanced services sectors. It has 36 portfolio companies. Investors in this fund include banks, insurance, and financial services firms as well as endowments, mutual and pension funds, and others. SJF Ventures is based in Durham, North Carolina. Read the press release.

Cintrifuse closes $51 million to spur innovation in Ohio 

Cincinatti-based fund Cintrifuse has added investors to its “fund of funds,” which has now closed at $51 million. Cintrifuse supports both regional and national early-stage venture capital funds with a focus on life sciences, consumer goods and services, technology, and energy. Participants said in a statement the Greater Cincinnati is ripe for growth and this fund will go towards growing its innovation ecosystem.

Twentysomething forms New York City’s newest VC firm

Venture capitalist Mike Brown has formed an independent fund of $33 million to support early-stage startups that work in the marketing and technology layer of large enterprise. According to a report in CNN, Brown expects the fund to back 25 companies in seed and Series A rounds of between $250,000 and $3 million. Brown started out working for Virgin Group and then cofounded AOL Ventures. His firm is called Bowery Capital and is based in New York City. Partners include members of AOL Ventures portfolio companies, including the founders/CEOs of Sailthru, CodeAcademy, and Premise Data. Read more on CNN.

DocuTAP taps into $11.9M to save lives using software

DocuTAP has raised $11.9 million from Bessemer Venture Partners to help urgent care clinics digitalize their operations to make them more efficient and less reliant on paper. The software integrates electronic health records (EHR) and “practice management” technology so all the information and tools needed to operate an efficient practice is one place. The company was founded in 2000 and this marks its second round of funding. Bluff Point Associates led the first round of $12 million in March 2012. This financing will be used to increase market presence, accelerate sales, and continue to improve the products. It’s based in Sioux Falls, S.D. Read more on VentureBeat.

Poppin raises $11.1M in new funding 

The New York-based e-tailer of office furniture and workstyle products Poppin today announced 11.1 million in Series B financing, taking the total funding to $17.1 million. The round is led by TrilogyGrowth, with participation from Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Poppin’s founder, J. Christopher Burch. Poppin aspires to make buying and browsing office products an “extraordinary experience.” Clients include Fab.com, Kate Spade, LinkedIn, and Pandora. With the new investment, the company plans to expand its product offering with a focus on growing its furniture collection. Read more on VentureBeat.

Mobile app-building platform FeedHenry raises $9M

FeedHenry is yet another company that wants to help “the modern developer” quickly build mobile apps for iOS, Android, and mobile web. But it’s such a profitable, popular space that even in a crowded market, this startup secured a healthy $9 million round of investment capital. Today’s funding was led by Intel Capital with participation from existing investors Kernel Capital, VMware, Enterprise Ireland, and new investor ACT Venture Capital. A previous seed round of around $1 million or less took place in mid-2011. FeedHenry is based in Waterford, Ireland, with offices in Burlington, Mass. Read more on VentureBeat.

Pure Energies Group ramp up with $6M of pure capital

Pure Energies Group received $6 million in funding from NEA and NGEN for its approach to residential solar technology. PEG advises homeowners on adopting the solar energy system that works best for them. The company helps them navigate the confusing world of power purchase and lease agreements as well as prepay options and escalation tables, and it partners with major solar suppliers for installation. PEG recently made two acquisitions that helped gain traction in local markets and the financing will support continued expansion. It is based in Toronto, Ontario.

Investors drop $2.3 into Dropico

Dropico Mobile has raised $2.3 million for its product MasterFX, an iPhoto application that combines “the fun and ease of Instagram” with “the power of photoshop.” MasterFX offers photo editing tools that go beyond filters, but is easier to use than more sophisticated photo-editing tools. The app is free and has over 1,500 photo elements, effects, characters, and brushes. Angel investors comprised this initial round for Dropico, which is based in Herzliya, Israel.

Joytunes sings to the tune of $1.5M in funding

JoyTunes is the “Rosetta Stone” of music education. The application combines new media, gamification, and audio technology to make practicing an acoustic instrument feel like a game. Its first two games, Piano Dust Buster and Piano Mania, are designed to make piano playing more fun and engaging, and therefore encourage more playtime. Genesis Partners led this round, with participation from Founder Collective, Kaedan Capital, and angel investors. JoyTunes is based in Israel.

SocialWire pulls in additional seeds and new CEO

Ad-tech startup SocialWire has added $1M onto its seed round, according to a report in TechCrunch. SocialWire’s technology is supposed to “make Facebook ads work” by helping online retailers leverage customer data to automate advertising and target the right customers. Its recommendation engine for ads is designed to personalize the ads as effectively as possible. This extension follows the company’s $2 million seed round from November 2012. New investor SoftTech VC participated, as well as existing investors First Round Capital, 500 Startups, Accelerator Ventures and Joi Ito.

Photo Credit: grenada_turnier/Flickr

Startups targeted to businesses, rather than consumers, are increasingly closing the largest rounds.

Today was no exception. Analytics startups Clicktale and Skytree raised the most sizable sums. As our own Rebecca Grant whimsically put it in her Clicktale write-up, “every mouse has  a story, whether its Mickey and Minnie, Alice in Wonderland’s Dormouse, or the one helping you navigate around the Internet.” A further three enterprise tech companies also secured funding.

The moral of the story? It’s wise to invest in enterprise. Here’s our full list of the startups that received funding today.

Skytree gets $18M for its “big data” analytics tools

The company that applies machine learning for “big data” analytics raised $18M in funding led by U.S. Venture Partners, joined by joined by USP, the world’s largest package delivery company, and Scott McNealy, co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems.

Clicktale raises $17M to tell the story behind every [computer] mouse

Clicktale has raised $17 million for its ‘in-page analytics’ technology that provides insights into customers’ online behavior, down to the last click. Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

Dwolla raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz to revolutionize banking

Dwolla’s software allows anyone or anything connected to the Internet to move money. Individuals all the way up to enterprise companies can use the technology to send, request, and accept money from anyone else, and transactions can be conducted through email, mobile devices, and even social media. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Alpha Payments Cloud gets $12 million for its enterprise app store

The Singapore-based startup raised $12 million from an angel investor. The company has a cloud-based IT startup, and today launch an enterprise app store. APC hopes to change the way payment products are developed.

Fashion commerce company Ruby Ribbon gets $8.5 million

Ruby Ribbon claims to be the first company to sell unique shaping apparel through technology-enhanced, person-to-person social commerce. The company’s second round was led by Mohr Davidow Ventures and joined by the company’s original investor, Trinity Ventures.

Top Image via TellApart 

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Bookshout! raises $6M to amplify authors’ digital voices

Reading is generally a quiet activity, but today Bookshout! is proclaiming that it has raised $6 million. Bookshout offers multiple tools to support reader engagement. On the consumer side, Bookshout has a social reading app where people can find books and connect with their friends and authors. On Bookshout’s platform suite, publishers, and authors can promote their content and deepen engagement with audiences. This is Bookshout’s second round of funding, and it’s significant for the North Texas investment community which the Dallas Morning News called “lackluster.” Read more on VentureBeat.

Startup gets $5M to boost employment in the developing world using phones

Mobile recruitment startup Assured Labor has just raised $5.5 million to help spread its message of employment opportunities via cellphone communication throughout the world. The startup, which got its start at MIT’s MediaLab, focuses on helping people find jobs (and helping recruiters fill vacancies) in emerging markets through the power of simple mobile interfaces. Today’s funding was led by Capital Indigo with participation from existing investors Great Oaks Venture Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Kima Ventures, Enzyme Venture Capital, and others. Read more on VentureBeat.

Punky Brewster-turned-’momtrepeneur’ raises $2.5M to boost family creativity

TV actress Soleil Moon Frye of Punky Brewster fame is launching a mobile app, Moonfrye, backed by $2.5 million in venture capital. Moonfrye will feature kid-friendly project ideas and connects parents with the materials needed to execute them. The mobile app builds off the website, which features arts-and-crafts project ideas in a Pinterest-style format. The details of the commerce-focused business model have not yet been disclosed. RP Partners led this seed round, with participation from Greycroft, Daher Capital and Google Ventures. Advisors inlude Dan Rosensweig, Tim Ferriss, Randi Zuckerberg, Gina Bianchini, Erik Lammerding and Rick Marini. Read more on VentureBeat.

KelDoc, the ‘French ZocDoc,’ scores €700K from Alven Capital

KelDoc, a young French startup that books doctor and dentist appointments online, has just nabbed €700,000 ($913,010) in funding from Alven Capital. KelDoc co-founder Eduardo Ronzano told VentureBeat that the average waiting time to see a doctor in France is between one week and six months. This has led to a substantial rise in people searching for information online about other doctors in the area and trying to book appointments faster. The funding will go toward hiring new members for its sales and technical teams to help it expand more quickly. Read more on VentureBeat.

Photo credit: Mark and Allegra/Flickr

Today, we saw an inordinate amount of funding announcements from startups based in Silicon Valley and in tech hubs around the world. As far afield as Japan, disruptive companies raised multimillions to bring their products to the next phase of growth.

Whether it’s 3D printing or a new take on enterprise search, here’s our list of today’s cool tech funding deals.

Not your grandmother’s search: SRCH2 launches ‘Google-like’ tech for the enterprise

SRCH2, the startup with a new take on corporate search, was founded by a group of ex-Googlers. Today, the Irvine-Calif. based company raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital from a roster of high-profile investors, including Data Collective’s Zachary Bogue and Matt Ocko, Redpoint’s Brad Jones, Horizen Ventures, and TenOneTen Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

Chris Dixon and Andreessen Horowitz invest $30M in 3D printing marketplace Shapeways

If you weren’t sure whether this whole consumer 3D printing thing was going take off, Chris Dixon and Andreessen Horowitz may have answered your doubts. Dixon and company made a hugely symbolic $30 million investment in Shapeways, a 3D printing marketplace where designers may upload and print their 3D creations. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Japanese translation service Gengo gets $12M from Intel Capital

Gengo, a Tokyo-based startup specializing in people-powered translation, has just taken its second round of institutional funding. The deal, which totals $12 million, was led by Intel Capital with participation from previous investor Atomico as well as new investors Iris Capital, Infocomm (Singapore), NTT-IP (Japan), and STCV (Saudi Arabia). Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Infer raises $10M to help companies win customers with their data

Infer is a new predictive data applications company founded by the former architect of Yahoo BOSS Search Vik Singh.  The company claims its already profitable and counts Box, Jive, Yammer and others among its first competitors. The first round of funding was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Social+Capital Partnership, and Sutter Hill Ventures.

SkyKick raises $3.7M to hustle businesses onto Microsoft’s cloud

SkyKick publicly launched an application suite today to help migrate small and medium-sized businesses to Office 365. It also announced a new $3.7 million in funding. SkyKick is headquartered in Seattle. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Ad startup Nativo gets $3.5M

Another day, another online ad startup funding deal. Today, it’s a Nativo‘s moment in the sun. The startup’s first institutional round, totaling $3.5 million, comes from  Greycroft Partners with participation from Signia Venture Partner and e.ventures. Nativo makes a platform that lets advertisers and publishers deploy and manage native ad campaigns across multiple media properties.

Zooz’s people-first payments platform zooms off with $2M

Zooz is a payments platform that helps e-commerce vendors create the “ultimate checkout experience.” Today, the company announced closing $2 million in funding to add new products, customers, and partnerships. XSeed capital led the first institutional round. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Investor buys $2 billion of MSFT, says Microsoft ‘will win out’ as stock jumps 4%

Hedge fund manager Jeffrey W. Ubben disclosed that his fund, ValueAct Capital, has taken a $2 billion position in Microsoft stock, causing an almost immediate 4 percent jump in the stock. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Top image via Shutterstock

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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Today brought a deluge of funding stories, and the amounts were generally larger than our typical funding-news fodder, too.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Eventbrite bags $60M

Eventbrite may look like a company on the verge of an IPO, but its latest bit of financing shows it’s quite content to stay private. Eventbrite has raised a fresh $60 million in funding, thanks to T. Rowe Price and Tiger Global. While it’s a bit strange that a late-stage company like Eventbrite is still accepting financing, the tepid IPO market has made staying private an increasingly attractive option. Read the full story on VentureBeat

Kik weighs in at just under $20M

Only a few weeks after hitting 50 million users, the popular mobile messaging service Kik has received a new chunk of funding to fuel its impressive growth. Kik announced today that it has raised $19.5 million in a second round of funding led by Foundation Capital. It’s a significant step beyond Kik’s existing $8 million funding, but Ted Livingston, the company’s founder and chief executive, isn’t letting it get to his head. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Vidyo takes home $17M

Vidyo, the video conferencing company that supplies the technology for Google’s Google+ Hangouts and Nintendo Wii’s videoconferencing, has just raised a $17 million round. “Our overall growth in billings was 68%,” Vidyo CEO Shofer Shapiro told us. “That’s while our competitors were somwhere between flat and negative growth.” Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Gizmox closes $7.5M round for the mobile web

It’s not dead yet! It’s feeling better! The rumored last gasps of the mobile web won’t actually be its last, if Gizmox and its stable of investors have anything to say about it. The startup just raised $7.5 million to turn enterprise and business software into HTML5 mobile web apps. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Upstart gets $5.9M for college grad funding

“The startup is you!” Upstart, the startup that can help recent graduates step off the treadmill of a corporate career, just closed its first round of funding. The San Francisco-based company, which has been described as a “Kickstarter for people,” secured $5.9 million in investment from a roster of high-profile investors, including IronPort cofounder Scott Bannister, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Nanigans raises $5.8M for Facebook ads

Boston-based Nanigans is nothing more than a complex series of digital robots that place ads on Facebook and try to maximize the return on investment. Its customers include big-name companies like eBay, Zynga, and Fab. Today, the company told the world it’s taken a $5.8 million “Series A-1″ round of funding. The “A-1″ terminology reminds us of steak sauce, and the product reminds us of every other social media marketing platform we’ve ever heard of, but you know what? Good for them.

Kreditech takes a $3.5M deal

The Samwer brothers just invested in Kreditech, a German startup that uses thousands of data points to determine how creditworthy you are. Kreditech is a credit-scoring and micro-lending company aimed at emerging markets; it competes with UK-based Wonga. According to the website, Kreditech has grown to 30 employees and has also procured funding from the Rocket Internet startup incubator program. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Silver Lake’s $10.3B fund is makes millions seems like ponds

Private equity firm Silver Lake has pooled together $10.3 billion (that’s right, billion) to focus on technology buyouts. According to Reuters, a majority of investors in Silver Lake IV are based outside the United States, with a significant amount from Asia and the Middle East. The fund is the largest ever pool dedicated to technology buyouts, Silver Lake said in a statement. Silver Lake is known as the parter of Michael Dell in a $24.4 billion deal and as an investor in Skype and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. The previous fund Silver Lake Partners II closed at $9.3 billion in 2007 and was valued at 1.37 times the amount investors put into it.

Smart grid startup Enlighted lights up with $20M in new funds

Smart electricity and lighting startup Enlighted has raised $20 million in new funds to expand and bring its smart sensor tech that cuts electric use to many more companies. Enlighted’s sensor tech and software now covers more than 10 million square feet of commercial real estate, which is double the space it covered just five months ago. The company claims more than 55 Fortune 1000 companies have reduced lighting energy costs by 50 to 75 percent using its products. Customers include Google, LinkedIn, Turner Broadcasting, and Bank of New York. The new funding round was led by new investor RockPort Capital, with participation by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Intel Capital, and DFJ JAIC. Including the new funding, Enlighted has raised $35.4 million to date. Read more on VentureBeat.

Netronome keeps things flowing with $19M for flow processing

Netronome has raised $19 million in its fifth round of funding to accelerate research and development for its flow processing technology. Flow processing keeps traffic through a network running smoothly. With increasing numbers of users and activity, many enterprise companies need greater support for their applications. Flow processing means that an application can keep an active state on every conversation from start to finish, as opposed to packet-by-packet processing. Sourcefire, Intel Capital, DFJ Esprit, and The Raptor Group participated in this round. Read more on VentureBeat.

Kaazing! ‘Living web’ startup pulls $15M from investor hats

Kaazing enables the “living web,” which it describes as the “dynamic, interactive online world populated by applications that are always on, always connected, and always real time.” With the proliferation of mobile devices and the rise of Bring-Your-Own-Device culture, enterprise organizations have a growing need to build and adapt applications that work effectively across multiple channels. To fuel the company’s growth, Kaazing raised $15 million from New Enerprise Associaes and Columbus Technology Partners as well as existing investors. It brings the company’s total capital raised to $39 million. Read more on VentureBeat.

mBlox stacks up $14M in loans

Mobile messaging company mBlox closed $14 milliion in venture loans from NXT Capital Finance to fund strategic growth initiatives. mBox’s global network reaches more than 800 mobile operators and 5.8 billion devices. The company’s solutions help brands, agencies, and enterprises engage with their consumers on mobile devices, enabling things like interactive text message campaigns and push notifications. mBlox’ venture backers include Norwest Venture Partners, Scale Venture Partners, and Trident Capital.

Guavus ripens up with an additional $9M

Big data company Guavus has raised an additional $9 million from Goldman Sachs and TransLink. Guavus provides “holistic” big data analytics solutions for telecommunications companies. The Guavus Reflex platform and analytics applications provide data-based insights that can inform decisions surrounding network operations, marketing, customer care and monetization. Clients include two of the top three mobile operators and backbone carriers in the US.  This brings the total capital raised to $87M. Read more on VentureBeat.

‘Virtual fitting room’ startup shows off $7.64M

Fits.me has closed its first round of institutional funding for software that sets up virtual fitting rooms for online clothing retailers. Fits.me tries to improve conversion rates and lower for e-commerce companies by taking some of the guesswork out of online shopping. The London-based company also provides analytics. Existing investors SmartCap invested in this round, with new investors Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings Limited, and The Entrepreneur’s Fund. Clients include Adidas, Ermenegildo Zegna, Hugo Boss, and Thomas Pink.

Yodo1 builds $5M bridge between Western game developers and China

Beijing-based mobile gaming platform Yodo1 has raised $5 million from Singapore firm SingTel Innov8 to support further expansion into China. Yodo1 helps Western developers distribute their games in the Chinese market by handling localization, publishing, promotion, and even protecting partners’ IP from copycats and piracy. The Chinese market for gaming is huge and Yodo1 raised this additional funding continue growing. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Connected home platform raises $3.8M to power your smart house

Zonoff, which provides home automation software solutions, raised $3.8 million in venture capital funding from Valhalla Partners and Grotech Ventures. Founded in 2011, Zonoff can enable smart devices, like HDTVs, Blu-ray players, wireless routers, and thermostats, present in your home to work seamlessly together and communicate with one other. Its core technology brings together a wide range of such devices available on the market in a single system. You can control everything with one app instead of using multiple apps to run different systems in the home. Read more on VentureBeat.

GoCardless won’t go capital-less with $3.3M

GoCardless has raised its first round of funding to help businesses do exactly that. This Y Combinator startup offers “next generation direct debit,” enabling businesses to quickly and easily set up automatic and recurring payments online. The technology is geared towards interbank transfers, or ACH, in cases where credit card payments are not ideal. GoCardless is based in London. This round was led by Accel Partners and Passion Capital, and brings the total amount to $4.8 million.

Photo Credit: Joannaverdan/Flickr

It’s Friday and if you’re still in the office, you’re probably dreaming of a glass of wine and some quality time with your couch.

(Oh, you’re thinking about hitting up the town and having fun with actual humans? WELL, ISN’T THAT NICE.)

Two of our funded companies today are enabling your sloth-like tendencies by delivering you all your needs straight to your front door. Be it food for your dog, a new cell phone, or new underpants, these companies have you covered. And it seems investors like that idea too. Both businesses received funding over $20 million.

Who said being lazy never gets you anywhere.

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

HomeShop18′s $30M investment shows India’s e-commerce market growth

Indian home shopping business Homeshop18 has closed a $30 million funding round as it edges closer to an IPO. Homeshop18 claims to be the largest home shopping and e-commerce business in India. It launched the first home shopping channel in 2008, and sells everything from mobile phones to apparel. Hedge fund manager OCP Asia has invested $15 Million into the company, matched by an equal contribution from mass media company Network18. The terms of the deal stipulate that Network18 will remain the majority stakeholder in HomeShop18. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Motif raises $25M so you can invest in death, junk food, and pets

Motifs may have been the bane of your middle school English existence, but online investment platform Motif wants to make your life easier, or at least richer. Today, the company that “pioneered ideas-based stock investing” announced that it has raised $25 million in its third round of financing from Goldman Sachs, as well as existing investors Foundation Capital, Ignition Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners. Motif is an online broker that organizes potential stock investments into topical portfolios, or “motifs.” Rather than investing in a series of companies spread over multiple sectors, investors invest in themes that they believe in. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Relay Foods sows $8.25M to bring local groceries to your door

In today’s busy world, people don’t always have time for grocery shopping. Relay Foods has raised $8.25 million to do it for you. Relay Foods is an online grocery service that currently operates in the Mid-Atlantic region. People shop online through a selection of inventory from local farms, artisan producers, and grocery stores. Relay Food gathers the order and delivers it to a pick-up spot or right to your door. This $8.25 million brings Relay’s total capital raised to $14.25 million. Participating investors include Battery Venutres, TomorrowVentures, and Quantitative Investment Management. Relay Foods is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

ForSight Vision5 sees $8M in new funding for emerging eye tech

ForSight Vision5, a mysterious eye technology startup from the incubator ForSight Labs, has raised $8 million in new funding, according to a new SEC filing. Menlo Park, Calif.-based ForSight Labs has spun off several startups, all of which aim to make life better for the vision-impaired. It was originally launched by Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners, and Versant Ventures. The company’s latest project is ForSight Vision5, which carries this description on its website: “ForSight Vision5 is evaluating a variety of technologies to address important unmet patient needs in key ophthalmic markets.” Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Duedil lets you do your own company background checks with $5M in funding

U.K.-based Duedil raised $5 million this week to help businesses do their homework on companies they might create a relationship with. The Duedil tool lists company information such as accounting data, any legal issues that company has run into, backgrounders on the directors at that company , and more. While this information might be otherwise available, Duedil puts it into one place and continues to aggregate data through both the Companies House, as well as other, free data sources. The investment was led by Notion Capital and Oak Investment Partners, with participation from all previous investors, and Shakil Khan. Read the press release.

Sloth image via Shutterstock

Foursquare raises $41M as it doubles-down on search and ad ops

Foursquare announced today that it has raised $41 million in a fourth round of funding led by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. With the additional funds, Foursquare has time to actually build up its business by focusing more on ad operations, sales, and local search features. Most of the investment is in the form of a multi-year loan from Silver Lake, while the rest is made up of convertible debt from VC firms including Union Square Ventures and Andreesseen Horowitz. Read more on VentureBeat.

Pharma startup gets $30M for genetic cancer treatments

Syros Pharmaceuticals, a company that aims to revolutionize the treatment of cancer and other diseases, announced today it received $30 million in financing from Flagship Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners. Syros Pharmaceuticals integrates gene control research and drug discovery with disease biology and genomic data. This is the company’s first round of institutional funding, making the $30 million figure even more remarkable. The capital will be used to fast-track discovery and development of gene control medicines. Read more on VentureBeat.

Health accelerator gets $16M to find cures for rare diseases 

Venture firm New Enterprise Associates hopes to find new cures for rare diseases with its latest investment. Today, the Silicon Valley firm led a $16 million round in Cydan, an accelerator program for ideas, research, and strategic partnerships that would find cures for rare diseases. Cydan specializes in accelerating the commercialization of so-called “orphan drugs” designed to treat these diseases. Pfizer Venture Investments and Alexandria Real Estate Equities also participated in the round.Read more on VentureBeat. 

Check out this learn-to-code platform just for kids

A new service called Tynker launched today to help younger children learn how to code. Its core philosophy is that elementary school-aged children should understand the basics of how computers work and how they’re programmed. The startup launched today with a sizable ~$3 million in seed funding from 500 Startups, NEA, Felicis Ventures, and a slew of other angels and institutions. Read more on VentureBeat.  

Sticky gets $3M to track your eyeballs

Sticky is a startup that’s all about tracking your eye movements while you’re online to determine which ads you like (or ignore). Using this data, the company can tell advertisers whether anyone actually sees those annoying banner ads floating around the web and just how much it costs to get anyone’s real, legitimate attention online these days. The company has just announced a $3 million round of funding, its second institutional infusion of cash. The funding comes from Euro-firm Northzone and Conor Venture Partners, a VC firm based in Finland.

Rackware racks up $1.8M to make enterprise clouds better, faster, strong, better 

RackWare is a cloud startup that has raised $1.8 million in its first round of funding. RackWare has developed a series of enterprise solutions to bring “intelligence and automation to the cloud.” The RackWare Management Module (RMM) helps businesses scale across private, public, or hybrid cloud environments, without changing applications. This $1.8 million is part of an intended $2.67 million, according to an SEC filing. . The investors are undisclosed, although VentureBeat has reached out to RackWare for comment. Read more on VentureBeat.

LevelEleven lands another $500K to gamify sales and CRM

Enterprise gamification startup LevelEleven has raised $500,000 in new seed funds to motivate sales people around the world. Detroit-based LevelEleven offers software that makes sales and selling a game. The company’s flagship product is ContestBuilder, which pushes sales people with a leaderboard, has them mark completed tasks, dangles potential rewards for the top sales people, and more. ContestBuilder is the most popular gamification app on the Salesforce AppExchange. LevelEleven raised $1 million back in October, bringing its total seed funding to $1.5 million. The seed funding was led by Detroit Venture Partners, with participation by Hyde Park Venture Partners, The First Step Fund, and private equity investor Rick Inatome. Read more on VentureBeat.

OpenCoin raises seed round so ‘anyone in the world can trade any amount of money in any currency’

OpenCoin is a startup building a simple, global, open currency system. Today, the company announced it has an angel round of funding to expand the Ripple protocol, a virtual currency and payments system that allows “anyone in the world to trade any amount of money in any currency.” Ripples are a virtual currency. The Ripple network is a decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer payment network that enables free payments to merchants, consumers, and developers in any currency. Andreessen Horowitz, FF Angel IV, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vast Ventures, and Bitcoin Opportunity Fund participated in this round. Read more on VentureBeat.

Photo Credit: ktread/Flickr

Early stage startups are going to be happy with today’s funding daily. A new $282 million fund is being put to use in your honor.

Foundation capital raised the large sum of money and is scouring Silicon Valley and beyond for early stage startups to invest in. Indeed, all of the investments announced today had to do with a first or second round of funding.

So get excited, up and coming companies. It might just be your turn next.

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Foundation Capital raises 7th funding of $282M for early stage startups

Foundation Capital announced its seventh fund today, a $282 million pool of money that the venture firm plans on investing in early-stage startups. Monlo Park, Calif.-based Foundation Capital has handled a total of $2.7 billion since it was first founded 17 years ago. This firm primarily invests in early-stage companies and plans to focus this current fund on consumer technology, information technology, and clean technology. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

ParElastic pulls in $5.7M for its NoSQL & NewSQL database alternative

ParElastic closed a $5.7 million first funding round today for its technology to help companies scale their cloud-based database. Founder and CEO Kenneth Rugg (pictured, above) said the company is delivering a solution so customers won’t need to change an application code or “move off the reliability of tried and true relational database servers.” Rugg is a former vice president at Progress Software, a public company that sells business infrastructure software. The funding comes from General Catalyst Partners with participation from existing investors, including Point Judith Capital. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Treehouse gets $7M to bring learn-to-code programs to high schools

Treehouse, a startup that’s a big part of the learn-to-code movement, has just closed a $7 million round of funding. Today, the company is also announcing it’s expanding its services to include high school classes in computer science. In the high school programs, Treehouse will come into schools with little or no computer coursework and will provide curriculum and virtual instruction, changing the lives of teens who might not otherwise get the opportunity to learn how the Internet really works. The second round of funding comes rom Kaplan Ventures and The Social+Capital Partnership. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Nexgate nets $3.5M from Sierra to track & protect your company’s social accounts

Enterprise social media protection and compliance startup Nexgate has raised $3.5 million in its first round of funding to protect businesses’ social media accounts from spam and hijacking, the company announced today. The new funding was led by Sierra Ventures, which focuses its efforts on early-state capital investment. Nexgate used to be called Social iQ Networks, and it launched a full enterprise suite in 2012 focused on discovering, protecting, and ensuring compliance for social media accounts associated with companies. Nexgate said its service is in use by “dozen multinational and enterprise” companies, but it hopes to push its service out to many more customers and improve its technology. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Eduson.tv brings business education to professionals in emerging economies with $1M in funding

As Brazil, Russia, India, and China advance towards the next stage of economic development, people in those countries want to advance their careers as well. Eduson.tv launched an online business education portal geared towards people in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries to help them improve their skill sets and earn a degree. The company raised $1 million from abel invests, including the founders of Groupon Russia. Although one-third of the courses are free, others charge enrollment fees and Eduson pays royalties to the lecturers. The goal is to add one new course a week. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Laughing baby image via Shutterstock

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Arkansas startup raises $83M for cowboy boots, Carhartt, camping gear  

Acumen Brands has raised a whopping $83 million from General Atlantic to support growth of its portfolio of e-commerce companies. The company leverages knowledge of SEO, social media, marketing, business strategy, and data analytics to operate branded online storefronts for businesses like CountryOutfitter, Tough Weld Workwear, and Scrub Shopper. this new financing will support the move to a 200,000 square-foot facility and the addition of 20 to 30 new KIva Systems robots.Acumen Brands is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas and has raised $93 million to date. Read more on VentureBeat.

[x+1] secures $17M in funding to grow business and acquisition strategy

Digital marketing and data management software provider [x+1] announced today the company received $17 million in funding from Ares Capital. [x+1] works with companies to synchronize consumer engagements through a variety of marketing channels. It will use the investment to support its overall market expansion as well as the company’s growth strategy of targeted acquisitions. Read more on VentureBeat.

Zerto closes $13M to disaster-proof company data in the cloud

disaster recovery startup Zerto is attempting to make the process less painful and more efficient. Today the startup also closed a $13 million round of funding to grow its recovery platform, which uses visualization to back up its clients systems on the cloud. The new round was led by led by RTP Ventures (an affiliate of ru-Net Holdings,) with participation from existing investors Battery Ventures, Greylock IL and U.S. Venture Partners. Read more on VentureBeat.

War of the Dongles gets another venture-backed player

The battlefield for mobile point-of-sale companies is getting as crowded as the battle for Kings Landing. Jusp, an Italian Square clone, has raised $6 million from Italian venture capital firms Principia Sgr and Vertis Sgr to fuel expansion into other Kingdoms. I mean countries. Jusp enters the fray along with European competitors iZettle and Payleven, not to mention PayPal and Square (The Baratheon and Lannister contingents if you will).

With $5.7M, Flexiant flexes its cloud muscles

Flexiant, a British provider of cloud management software and cloud orchestration, has raised $5.7M from private London investors. This financing will be used to expand it offering into the European and North American markets. Flexiant’s services give hosting companies, service providers and telecom companies support in provisioning/commercializing cloud services.

Asthmapolis inhales $5M to tackle a 50M person, $50B problem

Asthmapolis has raised $5 million from the Social+Capital Partnership to address chronic respiratory disease. The system combines a sensor that snaps onto asthma inhalers with a mobile app that displays data to the user and provides insights about their treatment. There is also a dashboard to help physicians monitor their patients. Founder David Sickle formerly worked as a epidemiologist focusing on asthma and respiratory health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more on VentureBeat.

EveryMove gets $3.5M for its apps that reward healthy employees

Seattle-based EveryMove has closed $3.5 million in funding for its health care mileage program. The company also just launched its Android app, which follows an iPhone app that lets employees gain points and rewards from brands for eating nutritious meals and going to the gym. The first round of funding comes from BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. Read more on VentureBeat.

Because going out to eat is too hard, Kitchensurfing gets $3.5M to connect you to chefs

Kitchensurfing grabbed $3.5 million today to feed you. No, I’m not kidding. The company created an online marketplace for chefs where you can choose a chef, have them cook food for you, and then leave a review Yelp-style on the Kitchensurfing website. The company processes all of your payments as well, so you won’t have to use cash or cut the chef and awkward check at the end of the evening.  The funding comes from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital.

MBA & Company finds money in talent

Digital talent marketplace MBA & Company has raised $1.218 million to expand its inventory of “highly qualified freelance consultants” and businesses interested in hiring them. Since its founding in 2009, MBA & Company has attracted over 16,000 professionals from around the world with at least five years experience and advanced degrees, to work on projects large and small. The site operates a curated selection process and follows a pay-as-you-go business model. MMC Ventures led this round, with participation from Piton Capital and Cabiedes.

Europeans are still excited about daily deals…at least Bownty and its investors hope so

A European startup is hopping on the long-departed daily deals aggregator train. Bownty, a company based in Denmark, has raised $1.1 million from Danish SEED Capital and Accelerace Invest to further expand further across Europe. The site currently aggregates over 2,5000 deals from over 100 daily deal sites, targeting the UK, France, Spain, Germany, and Denmark.

Photo Credit: Screwtape/ Flickr

Here’s a quick overview:

Femtocells sell

Cisco bought femtocell and small cell manufacturer Ubiquisys for $310 million today.

Femtocells and small cells, apparently, are important for helping boost 3G and LTE reception in homes and buildings. Cisco SVP Kelly Ahuja said in a statement that “by acquiring Ubiquisys, we are expanding on our current mobility leadership and our end-to-end product portfolio, which includes integrated, licensed, and unlicensed small cell solutions that are tightly coupled with SON, backhaul, and the mobile packet core.

Boring stuff sells, apparently.

Cash for enterprise startups

Ignition Partners closed a new $150 million fund to focus on enterprise startups: business software and cloud computing. The fund is also opening a Palo Alto, Calif. office.

Human organs on chips

Hurel, the company that created a breakthrough organ-on-a-chip to replace skin allergy testing on animals, announced that it’s receiving $9.2 million Series A funding from Spring Mountain Capital. The funds will support the commercial launch of current products and continued R&D of its technologies and future products.

Space, infinity, and high-def

UrtheCast is launching the world’s first high-definition video platform of Earth, streamed live from the International Space Station. A new $25 million financing agreement is going to help that become a reality, apparently.

“When you begin using the platform, it will feel much like you’re interacting with a mashup of Google Earth and YouTube,” the company said.

Dollars for tags

Tealium raised $15.6 million from Tenaya Capital, Battery Ventures, and Presidio Ventures to continue building and marketing the “fastest, easiest to use, and most data-focused tag management platform on the market.”

Tealium’s total funding is now $27 million.

Big money for small loans

Small loan company Kabbage has closed a credit facility of $75 million, its largest to date. The company provides working capital to small business-owners so they won’t need to put personal assets on the line, like a house or car.

Victory Park Capital led the funding round, and equity investor Thomvest Ventures also contributed.

Integrating $37 million

API and data integration company MuleSoft raised $37 million from just about everybody. New Enterprise Associates led, with participation by other investors including Salesforce, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAP Ventures, and Bay Partners.

Hopefully, the company will use some of the money to brainstorm a new name.

Including the new round, MuleSoft has raised $81 million to date.

Mobile device management for $2 million, Alex

MokiMobility announced $2 million seed round from Epic Ventures, Allegis Capital partner Spencer Tall and Fusion-IO’s Tyler Smith.

And, briefly …

• EAT Club announced $5 million from August Capital for expansion beyond Silicon Valley.
• New York based startup BA Insight announced a $4.5 million round of funding with participation from all four of its initial investors: Milestone Venture Partners, Osage Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group and Originate Ventures.
• Neon, the Carnegie Mellon University startup that uses cognitive neuroscience to improve online video clicks, has secured venture capital (VC) funding in a seed round led by True Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. Terms were not released.
• iPad presentation creator Haiku Deck has raised a first round of $3 million from Trilogy Partnership, with participation from Madrona Venture Group, Founders Co-op, and various angel investors.

It’s been a big day for the deals beat with Marketo and Tableau filing for hotly-anticipated IPOs.

It’s also the beginning of a furious startup funding season in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs. We saw a significant uptick in funding today; almost a dozen companies closed rounds in diverse industries, such as sports, consumer-tech, and political-tech.

But as always, in this funding mayhem, VentureBeat has you covered. Check out the full list of deals here in no particular order.

Auctionata modernizes the auction house with $20M from VCs

Auctionata claims to be the first patented online producer of live auctions. And today, the company announced investors are throwing down $20.2 million to support global expansion, recruiting, and product development. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

ElectNext gets $1.3 million for its open political database

The political news media has a new weapon: ElectNext. The company gleans its information from organizations like The Sunlight Foundation, GovTrack, and Follow the Money, and it also works with open data-friendly cities like Philadelphia. Its political database can now be used by publishing partners like Hearst and The Washington Post. Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

Arkansas’ Collective Bias storms marketing scene with $10.5M in funding

This “social shopper media company” connects brands with consumers through its Social Fabric community of 1,400 influencers. These influencers tell “real-life” stories about their shopping experiences and product usage and share them on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Deep pulls in $10m in first round funding

“Big data” startup Deep Information Sciences (formerly known as CloudTree) raised $10 million from Robert Davoli and others to help its customers with a “new approach” to database architectures. The flagship product is a database appropriately called DeepDB, and it provides simultaneous transactions and analytics in the same data set in real time. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Grand St. grabs $1.3M from First Round & others for its ‘creative tech’ marketplace

There are many places you can buy cool technology products on the web — ThinkGeek, Wantful, Amazon, etc. But the next place on your list of sites to buy from might just be Grand St., an online marketplace for buying “creative technology” products that has received $1.3 million in new seed funding. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

South Asian lingerie conglomerate gets $20M for its enterprise management solution

Attune is a provider of technology solutions for the fashion and lifestyle industry. Today, the company announced a $20 million round of investment to expand its offerings “across all areas of the fashion and lifestyle value chain” to help brands to streamline and manage their operations and optimize their performance. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Sport Ngin revs up with $6M in Series C financing

Sports software provider Sport Ngin (formerly known as TST Media) closed a $6 million round led by El Dorado Ventures. Sport Ngin creates web and mobile solutions for youth, amateur, and professional sports organizations, which powers the online presence of more than 100,000 sports teams, leagues, clubs, association, tournament, facilities, and businesses around the world. This funding will support the company’s growth and accelerate product development, as well as marketing and sales efforts.

Favourit’s investors place $3.6M bet on betting

Favourit launched globally today and revealed $3.6 million in funding to expand its social sports betting platform. This Melbourne, Australia-based startup provides sports fans and bettors an online forum to wager virtual currency or real cash in regulated markets. Favourit’s “Facebook for the sports betting world” is a community that connects sports fans and their friends with licensed betting operators. The round was raised through angel investors.

Appland enter the Middle East, raises $1M

Appland has secured $ 1million for its white label app store platform. Today, the company also announced entering the Middle East through a partnership with Saudi Telecom Company. Appland’s technology supports on-click operator billing, soil marketing, virtual currency, and geo-location targeting. Appland is based in Sweden and has offerings for Androird, iOS, and Blackberry.

CreditKarma gets $30M to help flustered Americans track their credit scores

Instead of charging people $10 or so per month to monitor their scores, Credit Karma offers the service for free, supplementing it with tools for tracking other financial information like bank accounts, bills, mortgages and loans. It’s a powerful, effective, and potentially very lucrative tool — which is why it’s no surprise to see that Credit Karma has raised $30 million in a big Series B round led by Ribbit Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

KeepTree Announces $2.62 Million Investment from Japan’s Faith Inc. & Others

KeepTree, a developer of a new video messaging technology that allows people to record videos and deliver them immediately, or at a future date and time, today announced it has secured a $2.6 million investment led by Japan-based Faith, Inc, a mobile technology development firm. The Company will use the funding to expand its team and to drive the ongoing development of its business and technology.

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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So, we’ve got all this data out there. We collect it, we store it, we think it’s awesome and we boast about all the types of stuff we now know. But when it comes down to it, to really know it, we’ve got to analyze it.

That what investors were thinking today when they put their cash into companies like the ones below. MyBuys takes that data and help businesses make sure their products are reaching the people who would be interested in them. If it actually works, can you say, ca-ching? And Visual.ly doesn’t just analyze the data, it makes it beautiful through its graphical renderings of data.

Veritrix might be the odd one out here, though it does collect a lot data — that is, your face and your voice every time you log in to your company’s system.

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Veritrix takes authentication to the next level by recording your image and voice, gets $2.4M

Veritrix believes that you’ll only be able to truly “authenticate,” or know who’s logging into your system by physically identifying them. The company raised $2.4 million in a funding round today, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. eritrix’s software as a service product, which it calls the Sovay Sever, makes sure that the person logging in is really the person in the chair by taking video and voice recordings of the person to let them in. That is, you can your traditional login and password combination, but then the Sovay Sever will step in and make the person record a statement through the computer’s webcam. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Data visualization startup Visual.ly grabs another $2M to take on ad agencies

Big data may be cool, but it’s not pretty. Visual.ly, a startup focused on data visualizations and infographics, has raised a new $2 million round of funding, the company has confirmed to VentureBeat today. Visual.ly’s platform is like a “basecamp” for design projects that want to utilize big data from multiple sources. It’s clients (brands, businesses, and news organizations) subscribe for access to the platform, which can match them with Visual.ly’s community of over 55,000 designers. Once matched,the designer and the client work together using the platform, with Visual.ly’s team acting as a project manager. Essentially, it answer the question of what do to for companies after they’ve hired a designer and don’t quite know what to do next. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

MyBuys gets $1M to watch your customers and predict the products they’ll want most

MyBuys works with retailers to follow customers around the Internet and provide them with advertising and opportunities to interact with not just your brand, but the specific products MyBuys believes they’ll want. The company’s technology looks at your customers’ behavior, such as whether they interact with emails, click on advertising, abandon their shopping carts, what items they like, what prices they’re willing to pay, and what they’ve bought in the past. After compiling that data, it pushes out the products it deems most likely to get purchased through email promotions, advertising, and even snail mail. The company raised $1 million in funding, according to a filing with the SEC and is backed by Palomar Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and RHO Ventures.

Analysis image via Shutterstock

It’s that time of year in Silicon Valley: launches, demo days, and a consistent stream of startups getting funded.

This week, our reporters covered the coming out party for Y Combinator’s startups, and the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco. Investors attended both events in their droves, and were ready to open their check books. 

In short, our deals team will have their hands full in the coming months. But we’re just at the beginning of a funding cycle. Today, we saw some scattered investments in the $4-10 million range:

Clean tech startup Choose Energy grabs $4M from Kleiner Perkins

Today Choose Energy announced it’s closed a new $4 million round of funding to help advance its web service that enables consumers to compare prices for all the retail electricity plans available in the area, educate on each type of energy, and enroll them into a plan. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Rev raises $4.5M for freelance marketplace from founders of similar service

Rev.com, a online marketplace to find freelancer work, launched today with $4.5 million in a 2012 funding round from oDesk creator Venky Ganesan and others. Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

Language learning startup Babbel will try to translate $10M into global growth

Language learning startup Babbel has raised $10 million in its second round of funding with a goal to grow globally and help more people speak new languages. Founded in 2008, Babbel wants to make learning a new language as fun as a game. It claims to offer more than 6,500 learning hours to help people become fluent in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and eight other languages. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

photo credit: gato-gato-gato via photopin cc

Today’s Funding Daily brings you nothing small. We’ve got a huge new fund for health tech ideas, a massively ambitious plan to turn cars into something from The Jetsons, and a great, big payout from Nasdaq to early Facebook IPO participants.

Third Rock Ventures racks up $516M for health tech

Third Rock Ventures is a venture capital fund that supports companies working on health IT, science, biotech, and medicine. It’s huge, $516 million Fund III will invest in up to 16 companies with a particular focus on the “going convergence” of diagnostics, therapeutics, information technology, and data. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

GroundCntrl grabs $1.3M

In a Form D filed with the SEC late last week, we learned about a relatively small round for a new company with a weird name. GroundCntrl is a combination of a software as a service and a mobile app that organizes tasks and employee-incentive programs. It’s specifically aimed at companies with a “mobile workforce,” businesses that have workers spread out and not necessarily in an office. An example could be a canvassing business, such as the environmental folks you see on the sidewalks asking for a moment of your time. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Joyride’s seed investors take a spin

Joyride seeks to make your boring commute time more fun with voice-activated mobile applications that provide a safe and social way to spend the driving hours. The startup is launching publicly today after presenting off-the-record at the Founder Den Demo Day last week and announcing $1 million in funding. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Sherpa guides itself to a $1.1M pile of cash

Sherpa, iPhone app that promises to simplify your day, raised a $1.1 million round of seeding funding, it announced today. The app uses location-based technology to make your commute, routine, and life easier and is designed to work collaboratively with your smartphone’s calendar and email, automatically pushing information when you need it. Once installed, Sherpa can let you know when to leave for your next meeting, alert you to traffic jams on your daily commute, and automatically pull up your flight information when you arrive at the airport. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Fenwick & West say a good Series A is hard to find

Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West just released the results of its 2012 Seed Financing Survey today. The study showed that the number of startups obtaining Series A financing after a seed round declined significantly in 2012. Cue the sad trombone sound effect! Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Not so much an exit as a $62M payout for Facebook investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission gave Nasdaq the green light to pay out up to $62 million to those who lost money after technical glitches held up Facebook’s initial public offering by a half hour. The ordeal cost investors money, and a couple weeks later, Nasdaq submitted its proposed compensation plan to the SEC, though it does claim it is not responsible for losses incurred on the trading floor. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

It was the first day of spring this week, and we’re excited to shake off that flu season in exchange for allergy season. Yay!

Investors are thinking along the same lines today, with two big deals in the health sector — one in genome chips that can read your DNA faster than ever before, and one in a company that is revolutionizing your wait at the doctor’s office.

Health tech is a big issue as machines, the cloud, and our bodies all move closer together. In fact, we think it’s such an important topic that we’ve built an entire conference around it.

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

OneMedical gets $30M to bring high-quality healthcare to all Americans

Startup founders often make bold claims about disrupting entire industries. Dr. Tom X Lee is one such entrepreneur, but in this particular case, his company is already shaping the future of healthcare. Dr. Lee is the founder and CEO of One Medical Group, a chain of concierge primary care practices operating under the tagline, “The doctor’s office. Reinvented.” The company took on $30 million in sixth round of funding today. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

New Russian high-tech fund to invest up to $20M in startups across the globe

In a new illustration of the vibrant activity of the Moscow venture scene, Maxim Shekhovtsov and Alexander Zhurba – founders of TexDrive, one of the city’s largest startup accelerators – announced last week the creation of a fund dedicated primarily to IT projects in Russia and around the world. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Genapsys raises $8.5M to sequence your genome on a cheap chip

While it’s remarkable that we can actually sequence entire genomes today, the process remains relatively expensive. Genapsys aims to change that with its Genius system-on-a-chip sequencing technology (above), which is significantly cheaper than the competition and offers dramatically faster turnaround times. The company revealed today it has raised $8.5 million of a $13.5 million round, according to an SEC filing. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Decide.com scoops up $8M from Vulcan Capital & others to further combine ‘big data’ & shopping

Online shopping startup Decide.com has raised $8 million in its third round of funding so it can continue to help consumers find the best site and time to buy products using “big data.” Seattle-based Decide.com claims to sift through more than 230 terabytes of data to find the best-rated products from every major retailer in the United Sates. Maybe more importantly, it also uses that data to predict future prices on 1.6 million products so you can choose the best time to buy. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

RoboteX private security robots gets $2.06M backed by Peter Thiel

RoboteX, a California company building robots for “first responders,” has filled $2.06 million of a desired $5 million round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. RoboteX was founded in 2007 and creates robots without the use of government funding. Its line of “Avatar” robots are meant to help with security, sometimes in situations that could be dangerous for humans. The website lists examples such as serving papers to a dangerous individual, entering hostage situation, patrolling, investigating suspicious packages, and more. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Sneezing girl image via Shutterstock

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Accel’s massive new $475M fund is all about startups in Europe & Israel

It’s a good day for European and Israeli startups seeking funding, as Accel Partners announced a new $475 million fund today for early-stage tech companies. The new fund, Accel London IV, was raised in just eight weeks and makes Accel London one of the largest venture capital firms in the region, with $2 billion raised to date across its previous funds. The new fund’s total is more than what was initially rumored back in February, as VentureBeat previously reported. Read more on VentureBeat.

Social marketing startup Dachis Group closes $7.5M funding round

Dachis Group, a social marketing software company, has announced a $7.5 million round of funding. The startup combines a few disciplines: social marketing, social analytics, and big data. The company’s products can track brand advocates’ social media impact, employee’s online activities, online marketing campaigns, and overall brand social performance, allowing clients to optimize accordingly and — with any luck or skill — profit. Previously, the startup took a huge $30 million round from Austin Ventures in 2011. Austin Ventures was also responsible for the current round, which is Dachis’ Group’s third infusion of institutional funding. Read more on VentureBeat.

ClearFit reigns in $7M for builders, servers, chefs and more

ClearFit, which has developed a solution for human resources and recruiting, announced the close of a $7 million round of funding. ClearFit’s software helps businesses in the construction, retail, restaurant, hospitality, and franchise industries find job candidates and uses data analysis to predict employment success. GrandBanks Capital and Relay funding led this firs ground of institutional funding. ClearFit is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

Tapad taps into $6.5 million 

Of all the unified cross-device advertising solutions out there, Tapad claims to be the leading one. This startup, which works with more than 75 brands of Fortune 500 companies, secured $6.5 million in its second round of funding after significant revenue growth in 2012. The funding, led by Firsthand Technology Value Fund and with participation from FirstMark Capital and Avalon Ventures will be used to “maintain Tapad’s pace of growth in the U.S.” Read the press release. 

Video marketing startup Vidyard gets a $6M first round of funding

Vidyard, a video marketing startup, has just announced its first institutional round of funding. The cash, which amounts to a healthy $6 million, comes to the Toronto-based company from OMERS Ventures, which led the round. The funding also saw participation from previous investors iNovia Capital and SoftTech VC (Jeff Clavier’s firm). The Vidyard platform gives marketers tools for analyzing and optimizing video marketing for lead generation, customer conversion, and good ol’ ROI (that’s return on investment). Read more on VentureBeat.

Japanese high-class groupons bring in $5.3M 

Daily deals sites often target the economically-minded consumer. Luxa, however, is a Tokyo-based startup that offers coupons and discount on more expensive, higher-quality products, like fancy restaurants and food products, premium sake, spa treatments and cosmetics. Japanese venture capital firm JAFCO led this round, following up to the $5.3 million it invested in Luxa in August of 2010.

Glide glides into seven figure of funding

Israeli video messaging startup Glide launched today and announced that it is backed by a “seven-figure” sum from venture capitalists and private investors. Glide’s real-time video streaming technology enables live video chats between friends without uploading/downloading time. Messages are saved to the cloud and can be played back later. Invesotrs include Orey Gillam and Philippe Schwartz. Read the press release.  

Import.io imports funding, along with big data 

UK big data startup Import.io has pulled in $900K in seed financing from Wellington Partners to expand and develop its platform. The technology seeks to turn the web into a database by harnessing trapped data. Import.io “lets companies, developers, and cores extract, connect and fuse disparate sources of data from the web to let them build and create powerful new data sets and applications.” Alta Vista founder Louis Monier and French investor Emmanuel Javal also contributed.

Investors place bets with Vegas startup to take on Ustream

Livestreaming company iStreamPlanet raised its first round of funding today, though the company is not disclosing the amount. iStreamPlanet competes with companies like Ustream and Livestream, though the company focuses on delivering live video to different device types at one time. The round comes from Juniper Networks’ Junos Innovation Funding and will be used to build out the product line. iStreamPlanet was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Las Vegas.

Tapjoy starts fund to invest in Australian developers

Tapjoy, the mobile advertising and publishing platform, has announced it will invest in Australian app developers. The San Francisco company has created its Tapjoy Australia Fund and made its first investment in a game studio called Defiant Development. Tapjoy, whose platform is used in 97,000 apps, plans to invest in iOS and Android developers and give them marketing and distribution support and money. Read more on VentureBeat.

Photo Credit: jmv/Flickr

Indochino

Indochino raised $13 million for an online menswear shop. Highland led this round and Stemberg will join the company’s board. Madrona Venture Group and Acton Capital Partners also participated in this round.

Wealthfront

Online wealth management firm Wealthfront raised $20 million from Mike Volpi of Index Ventures, who led the round, and Chamath Palihapitiya of The Social + Capital Partnership as well as Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners.

ShareThis

ShareThis, the social sharing toolbar, raised a $23 million series C  round  led by T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, plus Harbourton, Blue Chip Venture Company, Illinois Ventures, the Matthew Pritzker Company, Mercury Fund, RPM Ventures, and others.

Concurrent

Concurrent raised $4 million for helping developers build apps with Apache Hadoop from True Ventures and Rembrandt Venture Partners.

TheBestDay

Australian group booking site TheBestDay raised “just over $1 million” in a series A from a number of different investors.

QPID

QPID, a health records and intelligence solution, closed $4 million in early funding from investors including Matrix Partners, Partners Innovation Fund, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) and Cardinal Partners.

Spanning Cloud Apps

Spanning Cloud Apps, Inc., a data protection solution, secured $6 million in Series B funding with an undisclosed strategic investor leading the round, and existing investor Foundry Group LP also participating.

Masabi

And Masabi, a transit mobile ticketing and fare collection solution, announced today that it secured $2.8 million in funding from Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners and London-based MMC Ventures, plus existing investor m8 Capital.

photo credit: Beaulawrence via photopin cc

An attempt to find an overarching theme for today’s funding led to an image of a fashionably-dressed robot bride walking down the aisle. Don’t ask.

Here are today’s tech funding deals, in no particular order:

Fashion site Videdressing gets a $6M first round

French website Videdressing is one of many fashion ecommerce/consignment sites popping up, but the investors at Earlybird Venture Capital think it’s got something special going on. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Wesley Group stays ‘bullish’ with its $160M cleantech fund

The venture capital firm has closed a $160 million fund to invest in up-and-coming clean/green tech startups. Its investments in Tesla Motors, biofuel company Amyris, and China Recycling Energy Corp have all gone public, and Steve Westly sees this area growing in the future. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

$45M for data-collecting ocean robots

Liquid Robotics’ unmanned aquatic vehicles have netted the company $45 million in its company’s fifth round of funding. The money comes soon after Liquid Robotics sent one of these vehicles across the Pacific Ocean to collect data. The funding was led by Riverwood Capital with participation from VantagePoint Capital Partners. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

LinkedIn analytics startup raises $3.2M

PeopleLinx, a startup that makes LinkedIn engagement and analytics software, has collected a $3.2 million round of funding to continue its growth among the Fortune 1000. This is the company’s first institutional round of funding; it was led by Osage Venture Partners with participation from Greycroft Partners, MissionOG, and a handful of angels.
Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Hot messaging startup MessageMe nabs $1.9M

MessageMe has been busy since its launch a week and a half ago. The messaging application has been cut off from Facebook’s Open Graph, raised $1.9 million in seed funding, and attracted more than 1 million users. Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

Digital Capital invests $5M in Dream Weddings game apps

Zug, Switzerland-based Digital Capital is investing in Dublin, Ireland-based Dream Weddings so that it can make a game for both web and mobile devices. The game is expected to be unveiled in 2013 and will launch in early 2014. Read the exclusive story on VentureBeat.

Newswire startup NewsCred picks up $15M

New York-based content syndication and newswire startup NewsCred just raised a fresh $15 million round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, with participation by new investor Greycroft Partners and existing investors FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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Was there a theme in funding news today? If there was, it sure didn’t jump out at us.

Yet just the band The Misfits proved that horror punk could inspire and rock the masses, so this ragtag group of announcements prove that venture capital is still alive and well in the technology industry. Or something.

Here are the day’s tech funding deals, in no particular order:

Aviary takes AMD money for Windows domination

Aviary took an undisclosed amount of investment money from chipmaker AMD to improve its photo-editing software on Windows 8 PCs and tablets. The companies said the concentrated effort has already led t 16x speed improvements in the app’s performance. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Banned from Kickstarter, Chumba World gets legit investors

Chumba World is a massively multiplayer online casino game that was recently kicked off Kickstarter for its gambling-themed content. The team bounced back, however, announcing a $2.6 million round from venture capital investors. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Vasona Networks raises $12M to fix mobile data congestion

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Vasona Networks only came out of stealth mode in January, but it’s already scooped up a $12 million funding round. The company’s focus is on developing devices and software that enables mobile network operators (like AT&T and Verizon Wireless) to fine-tune all the traffic happening on their networks, down to each cell. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Former Googler gets $1.9M from Google Ventures

Gabor Cselle used to work at Google. Then, he created a little app called DrawChat, which he quickly auctioned off. Now, he’s back with a new idea and a new chunk of change, led by the investors of Google Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

AppNeta nets $16M in fresh cash

AppNeta has raised $16 million to expand its suite of software that supports IT performance management. The company’s approach is to build technology that focuses on end-user experience. Its solutions include real time monitoring of the full-stack of applications and a management service called PathView Cloud that provides visibility into network performance. Bain Capital, Egan-Managed Capital, JMI Equity, and Business Development Bank of Canada contributed to this third round of funding. Read the press release.

Internet bigwigs start new investment fund

Rocket Internet chief Oliver Samwer, his brother Marc, and former Delivery Hero co-CEO Fabian Siegel have teamed up to start the Munich-based Global Founders Capital: a new €150 million ($194 million) fund for high-potential Internet businesses. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Divshot gets $1.1M seed round

Divshot is a mobile designer’s dream. Its software includes a drag-and-drop visual builder for responsive web applications. Today, the company announced it’s closed a $1.1 million seed funding round led by Rincon Venture Partners with participation from 500 Startups, Floodlight Ventures, and others. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

LA gets a new incubator with $6M to burn

Be Great Partners is Los Angeles’ newest technology incubator. Located in the famous Variety Building on Wilshire, the accelerator said it’s already created 50 new jobs and is helping to build out LA’s tech infrastructure. More details coming soon, so stay tuned!

Hispanic search engine YaSabe raises $2.7M

YaSabe, a search hub catering to the Hispanic community in the U.S., has just announced a great, big $2.7 million seed round. Players in the deal include 500 Startups, CIT, and NEA’s Frank Bonsal. The search engine serves up bilingual results with a focus on the Latino communities. The company also provides a human-powered social concierge service that people can use to find specific information.

BackupAgent nabs $2M from Russia, with love

BackupAgent is a Dutch company that makes a cloud backup platform for SMBs. Today, the startup told the world it’s taken a $2 million round of funding led by Russian firm Runa Capital. Read the press release.

Cloud IT company takes home huge $16M check

AppNeta, a provider of cloud services for IT performance management, has raised $16 million. This is the company’s third institutional round of funding and was led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Egan-Managed Capital, JMI Equity, and Business Development Bank of Canada. The startup said its ultimate goal is “to transform IT performance management by bringing end-user experience monitoring and network insight to traditional application performance management.”

Image credit: IllaZilla/Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to the latest installment of Funding Daily, now with added lycopene and no formaldehyde!

Today, we got wind of a few interesting deals. It’s Pi Day, so we were really hoping for that one witty firm to lead a $3.14 million round for some math-related startup, but no dice. You’ve let us down again, Sand Hill Road.

Here’s who brought home the bacon-flavored pie today:

AirXP raises a cool millie

Former Zynga acqui-hire Minglei Xu scooped up $1 million for AirXP, his latest startup. What’s it do? The Form D didn’t tell us much, but some Internet sleuthing revealed it’s a still-in-alpha video app for social-type consumers with smartphones. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Shopaholics will love Wantr, now $600K richer

Wantr lets you know when the items you need (or just really, really want) have arrived in stores. The startup also has a Pinteresty feature where you can can share your favorite products. Wantr’s seed funding round comes from Seed Capital with participation from the founders of Trendsales and other angel investors. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Turn marking platform seals $3.6M deal

Of all today’s announcements, this one came closest to fulfilling our Pi Day hopes and wishes. Turn is a social/marketing/ecommerce platform; the $3.6 million it disclosed today in an SEC filing may be part of a larger round to be announced later. To date, it’s already raised $57.5 million in four rounds of funding. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for more news from Turn.

DeveloperAuction gets $2.7M for programmer bidding wars

We all know coders are in big demand, but it took the mind behind 99designs to take that fact to its logical conclusion: online nerd auctions. Think of it as an eBay for your GitHub. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Gaming startup Arkcadium raises $5M

We all love a good game. Arkadium makes casual games that run across multiple platforms, starting with — wait for it — Windows 8. Bazinga! The New York-based company got its most recent $5 million round from Edison Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

iRule goes in for seconds

Detroit-based iRule turns your smartphone or tablet into a universal remote control. The startup tells us it was founded in 2009 by die-hard audiophiles but is simple enough for even a boneheaded Luddite like yours truly to enjoy. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but we do know it’s iRule’s second round. The funding was led by Detroit Venture Partners.

Yeah, so Google Reader isn’t getting any funding love from Google. As we all know by now, the company is shutting it down. But there are other startups to be had and new technology to become obsessed with!

Today, funding was all over the map: from big data companies, to travel, to genetics. Venture capitalists are hanging their hats on many different sectors. Check out who got the funding infusion:

HG Data gets $2M to map connections between businesses

HG Data uses a data-driven approach to help salespeople build lists of potential enterprise customers, and is ready to disrupt the legacy IT market. The Santa Barbara-based startup today closed a $2 million funding round led by EPIC Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Former NSA director joins security firm Endgame’s board after it raises $23M

Endgame’s technology looks at what it says is billions of mysterious “data points” to give you a clear picture of an attack that is coming or an attack in progress. It then provides you with “tactical actions” to take within seconds. It has major government customers and is now backed by Paladin Capital, which led the $23 million second round of funding. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Russian travel site Oktogo.ru raises $11M, named ‘most innovative’ by Fast Company

Today, Oktogo.ru is announcing it’s raised $11 million from VTB Capital, Mangrove Capital Partners, Ventech, and Victor Sazhin Group. The Russian travel site — or rather, the startup that runs it — was named one of the 50 most innovative companies in the world last month by Fast Company. And innovation like that tends to attract a fair amount of investment. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Nabsys nabs $20M for single-molecule genetics platform

Life-science company Nabsys is up to some cool stuff. The company does genome sequencing using “solid-state nanodetectors,” and it’s just picked up a $20 million round of funding to continue its work. It uses the aforementioned nanodetectors to analyze single DNA molecules to find and identify DNA sequences over long distances. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Crying baby image via Shutterstock

Our regular Funding Daily reporter is off this week, so no more witty headlines for you. But we’ll do our best to fill Rebecca Grant‘s supremely funny shoes!

We will, however, continue to serve up what you presumably came here for: brief blips of funding news with an unusually palatable information-to-buzzword ratio.

Crushpath is giving salespeople a better way to crush it

The startup founded by former execs from Socialcast and Jive Software is off to a good start. The company just raised $6 million from SocialXPartnership and Charles River Ventures to make it easier for salespeople to track their relationships with potential prospects.

Swiftstack gets $6.1 million to take on EMC and NetApp

SwiftStack’s software defined storage solution can run on commodity hardware, and is cheaper than building a storage system from scratch. This first round of funding was led by Mayfield Fund, a venture firm with a long history of investing in the storage space. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

$3.2 million for web-performance monitor Catchpoint Systems

Web-performance monitoring startup Catchpoint Systems raised $3.2 million in new funding that will help it better keep an eye on companies’ web services, APIs, DNS, and more. “Think of us like the fire department,” CEO Mehdi Daoudi told VentureBeat. “We don’t put out the fire, but customers use us to detect smoke in the building, and we tell them the right place to put the hose.” Read the full story on VentureBeat. 

It’s no longer business as usual in medicine: Spiral Genetics gets $3 million

Seattle-based startup, “Spiral Genetics,” raised $3 million to build out tools that help researchers process and analyze genomics data. The round was  led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a firm that sees a massive market opportunity for bioinformatics tools. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Evolv can prevent ‘the wrong person ending up in the wrong job’

Evolv’s team of data scientists have developed software they claim can increase workforce tenure by an average of 15 percent and workforce performance by 5 percent. The company just raised $15 million in a fourth funding round led by Vantage Point. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Crittercism raises $12M to help developers monitor app performance

The company announced today that it has received $12 million in a second round of funding led by Google Ventures. Additionally, Crittercism is also launching a new service that will let developers monitor cloud services and network conditions around apps. Its goal? To take its monitoring service to the next level. Read the full story on VentureBeat.