Matchmaker application Zoosk catches $6M

Zoosk, provider of a social network application for dating, has brought in $6 million in a third round of preferred stock. Based in San Francisco, it previously raised $4.1 million last year at this time from Canaan Partners, ATA Ventures and Amidzad Partners.

Disclosure: VentureBeat has also received funding from Amidzad.

Plug and Play startup incubator eyes $20M for seed fund

Plug and Play startup incubator eyes $20M for seed fund

The Plug and Play Tech Center, a Palo Alto, Calif., accelerator program that provides office space, mentorship and a fundraising springboard for about 200 startups in the Silicon Valley, says it plans to raise $20 million for its own seed investment fund, to be called Plug and Play LLC. And it’s looking to its partners and several other capital firms — Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Sequoia Capital among them — to make it happen.

It seems… Continue Reading

Fotomoto lets photographers sell work direct on their sites

Fotomoto lets photographers sell work direct on their sites

Fotomoto lets photographers sell their photos directly to customers through their own web sites. E-commerce capabilities can now be added to an artist’s photo gallery with only a few lines of JavaScript code, the company claims.

An offering like this could turn the industry on its head. Previously, most photographers had to go through a middleman like iStockPhoto to sell their work online. In turn, they had to sacrifice control over how their images were sold,… Continue Reading