Obama now accepting campaign donations through Square

It’s an election year, which means it is time for debates, caucuses, and campaign fundraising. This year, President Obama is going beyond the hefty check and taking donations using tech-darling Square.

“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, running for president or local assembly, Square makes it easier than ever for candidates, organizations and volunteers to fundraise for their cause,” said a Square spokesperson.

Square allows businesses to accept credit card payments through their mobile … Continue Reading

Guess which Silicon Valley powerhouse is raising $1.5 billion?

Venture capital megafirm Andreessen-Horowitz is likely in the process of doing some fundraising.

Sources say the firm could be looking for up to $1.5 billion — an amount that would almost double the amount of current funds it has under management. Currently, the firm holds three funds totally $1.75 billion.

Two anonymous sources told the New York Times the funding from this alleged new raise would be divided into a $900 million fund and a … Continue Reading

Flagship raises $270M for green & health technologies

Flagship Ventures, a VC firm focusing on technologies for healthcare and sustainability, has closed its 2011 fundraising efforts with $270 million in the bank.

The new Flagship Ventures Fund IV L.P. was set at $250 million, but investors exceeded that amount. Investors included all types of organizations from foundations to corporations to individuals, including a few new limited partners that had not contributed to previous funds.

Flagship’s portfolio companies seem to be tackling big, human-scale … Continue Reading

Wikipedia fundraiser ends with $20M in the bank

Those intriguing fundraiser banners have finally disappeared from the pages of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

The site’s fundraising efforts for the year have ended, and the Wikimedia Foundation (the non-profit behind Wikipedia) was able to gather a record $20 million during the drive.

“We’ve hit our target. Thanks to you,” writes Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner in a post this morning.

“Over the past few months, more than one million people have come together … Continue Reading

Why women have a hard time raising money for startups, part 2 (video)

Every now and then, we hear from a female startup founder who says she’s having a hard time raising money. She can’t quite figure out if it’s her idea or her slide deck or — and no one wants to think this — if it’s simply the fact that she’s a woman pitching an idea to a roomful of male investors.

We recently invited Comcast Ventures‘ Amy Banse into the VentureBeat studio to discuss the … Continue Reading

Why women have a hard time raising money for startups, part 1 (video)

Every now and then, we hear from a female startup-founder who says she’s having a hard time raising money. She can’t quite figure out if it’s her idea or her slide deck or — and no one wants to think this — if it’s simply the fact that she’s a woman pitching an idea to a roomful of male investors.

Women 2.0 CEO and co-founder Shaherose Charania came into VentureBeat’s studio to chat about a … Continue Reading

Khosla Ventures raises $1.05B fund, half of it for cleantech

Storied venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his firm, Khosla Ventures, have raised a $1.05 billion fund.

Khosla said he will invest half of the new fund into clean technology companies, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The firm will continue to make early-stage investments in technology companies like group-texting service GroupMe. The new fund puts Khosla Ventures among the top five firms in terms of the amount of money venture capitalists have … Continue Reading

Salsa Labs raises $5M for fundraising software

Salsa Labs, a web-based tool non-profits use for fundraising, isn’t having any problems raising cash of its own. On Monday it received a $5 million first round of funding.

Fundraisers are everywhere. Coworkers sell their children’s wrapping paper, the quintessential, “Will you pledge for every mile I run?” It seems there are so many causes, but fundraising remains a dinosaur – an old and huge problem.

“Organizing is a profession,” said Chris Lundberg, chief executive … Continue Reading

Emergence Capital Partners raising $200M fund

Venture capital firm Emergence Capital Partners is in the process of raising its third fund, a $200 million fund labeled “Emergence Capital Partners III,” according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Emergence Capital Partners is known for investing in enterprise companies like cloud storage provider Box.net and online enterprise social network Yammer. It also invested in file transfer service YouSendIt.

The firm was an investor in customer relationship management (CRM) software provider … Continue Reading

Number of venture firms raising money at 16-year low in Q2

Money raised by venture capital firms to fund startups is on the rise, but the number of venture capital firms raising that money is at a 16 year low.

The number fell by nearly a quarter, from 48 firms in the second quarter of 2010 to 37 firms in the second quarter this year, according to data compiled by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.

A total of 76 venture capital firms raised … Continue Reading

Obama hopes Silicon Valley investment will pay off

President Obama’s busy trip to Silicon Valley included a private fundraiser at the home of billionaire Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, and a town hall meeting with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg at the Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters of the social networking firm. I felt his impact by getting stuck in the “Obama jam,” as the accompany traffic snarl in San Francisco was called.

Obama’s second pilgrimage in two months to tech magnates here will … Continue Reading

Startup founders want just-in-time financing (survey)

Venture capitalists and angel investors who are working on buffing their brand image and building relationships with entrepreneurs may be wasting their time, according to a newly released survey of 363 startup executives who recently raised funds or plan to do so within the next year.

The survey, commissioned by the Palo Alto office of Dorsey & Whitney, an international law firm, challenges many preconceived notions of what entrepreneurs find attractive.

Angel investors — wealthy … Continue Reading

Intel drops $30M in four more tech companies spanning semiconductors, cleantech and the cloud

In a time of other rather dense Intel announcements, the company has now announced that its financing arm Intel Capital invested $30 million in four new tech companies as part of its $200 million Invest in America Technology fund launched in February.

The investments range from cleantech to cloud computing and semiconductors — all areas Intel is probably beginning to branch out into, since the company is hoping to put chips in just about everything … Continue Reading

3Par investor Menlo Ventures looks to raise up to $800 million

The primary investor of 3Par, Menlo Ventures, is looking to raise $600 – $800 million for a new fund that would surpass Battery Ventures‘ and Institutional Venture Partners‘  $750 million funds raised this year, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

Menlo owns 9.37 million shares  of the highly sought-after cloud storage provider 3Par — or 15 percent of the company. Those shares are now valued at $33 each after 3Par accepted a $2.4 billion … Continue Reading

Bootstrapping band of brothers raise $30M for people search engine Inflection

Brian and Matthew Monahan weren’t quite sure how to raise venture capital funding, so they built Inflection from scratch and made it profitable with its first website for searching public records, Archives.com.

Now, they seem to have a pretty good fix on it: Inflection is poised to announce it has raised $30 million in its first round of funding, led by Matrix Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures, for the launch of its second foray into … Continue Reading

Andreessen Horowitz hitting up investors for a cool $650 million: report

It’s unseasonably warm in San Francisco. But is top Valley investor Marc Andreessen planning for winter? PEHub’s Dan Primack reports that Andreessen’s venture-capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, is raising a $650 million fund, little more than a year after it raised its first $300 million fund.

Andreessen’s timing is excellent. His firm beat fierce rivals and would-be acquirers to back Foursquare, the fast-growing location-based service, in a $20 million round. Another portfolio company, Skype, just filed … Continue Reading

Raise money in memory of a loved one with 1000Memories

1000Memories, a company that lets people create online memories for lost loved ones, announced a partnership today with WePay, a payment provider. The deal will give users a free account and the option of easily raising money for projects, foundations or charities, according to its blog.

The company lets users create a simple, yet informative page for people to come and remember a loved one. The main page launches with just the person’s name and … Continue Reading

TweetDeck raises $3 million in second round led by Betaworks

1000Memories, a company that lets people create online memories for lost loved ones, announced a partnership today with WePay, a payment provider. The deal will give users a free account and the option of easily raising money for projects, foundations or charities, according to its blog.

The company lets users create a simple, yet informative page for people to come and remember a loved one. The main page launches with just the person’s name and … Continue Reading

Payvment raises $1.5 million to build shopping experiences on Facebook

1000Memories, a company that lets people create online memories for lost loved ones, announced a partnership today with WePay, a payment provider. The deal will give users a free account and the option of easily raising money for projects, foundations or charities, according to its blog.

The company lets users create a simple, yet informative page for people to come and remember a loved one. The main page launches with just the person’s name and … Continue Reading