Family-tree site Kindo gets another seed investor
Family-tree builder and networking site Kindo announced today that it will be receiving seed money from Estonian venture company Ambient Sound Investments.
Through features like communication tools, family statistics and a newsfeed, Kindo says it wants to connect families the way Facebook connects friends and LinkedIn connects colleagues. But Kindo isn’t the only company trying to fill this role. For example, we reported on Geni, a Los Angeles start-up making similar claims, about a year ago.
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FlowPlay raises $3.7M for avatar game for teenagers
FlowPlay, a Seattle company developing a virtual world for teenagers and young adults around casual gaming, has raised $3.7 million in a first round of funding led by Intel Capital and Ambient Sound Investments.
John Cook, of Seattle PI has the news.
The company, run by former general manager of mobile games at RealNetworks, Derrick Morton, is still in testing mode, and apparently plans to launch in spring.
Morton said gaming integration with a social network took resources,… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Jan. 31, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
5AM Ventures puts $3.3M into stealthy ImmunoNewco (VBLS exclusive)
NewLink Genetics raises $17M for cancer vaccine, immune drugs (VBLS exclusive)
Biochip, stem-cell biotech Minerva Bio ousts CEO Jim Czirr and sues (release)
Sonexa Therapeutics takes $30M for Alzheimer’s treatment (release)
Tissue regenerator Healionics pulls in $1.7M (release)
EGeen, clinical research organization, receives $245K (VentureWire)
Barnvet Labs, HeMemics Bio get $75K apiece from Maryland gov’t (release)
5AM Ventures puts $3.3M into new immune-related startup – I’ve moved this item to a standalone post… Continue Reading
Pet site rivalry begins: United Dogs vs. Dogster
United Dogs & Cats, a company that manages the social networking websites for pet owners, Uniteddogs.com and Unitedcats.com, has raised an undisclosed round of funding from Ambient Sound Investments.
The Estonian company is the latest European clone of a U.S. Internet company. It competes against Dogster, the San Francisco company that launched in 2004 and runs popular sites Dogster, Catster and other sites.
Dogster has been growing steadily, having last year raised $1 million from angel investor… Continue Reading
Roundup: Ooyala to launch, Google gobbles Greenborder and more
Here’s the latest action:
Ooyala, secretive ex-Google company, about to launch — The Mountain View, Calif. company, founded by ex-Google engineers and product managers, is secretive but says it delivers a high-quality, interactive, video experience, and is a couple of months away from launch. Sean Knapp, a co-founder, formerly led Google’s user interface team for web and image search. Bismarck Lepe, also from Google, and another of the three co-founders, told VentureBeat the company wants to stay… Continue Reading
Skype-related firm invests $2.6M in e-purchasing co., MarkIT
Ambient Sound Investments, the investment group run by four early engineers of Skype, has invested EUR2 million ($2.6 million) in e-purchasing company MarkIT, according to VentureWire.
Based in Tallinn, Estonia, MarkIT hosts a Web portal where Eastern European businesses can buy IT equipment. The company said it will use the money to further develop its technology and expand its services into the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland within the next 18 months….The investment in… Continue Reading