Mimosa gulps $1.6M to archive data
Mimosa Systems, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that provides software for data archiving, has brought in $1.6 million in debt, rights and securities, according to a filing with the SEC. It is backed by August Capital, Clearstone Venture Partners, Dot Edu Ventures, Focus Ventures, Jafco Ventures and Mayfield Fund. It has now raised $21.6 million to date, including $3 million secured in June.
Adchemy raises $31M to increase online ad spending
Adchemy, a marketing firm trying to convince more major brands to advertise online rather than through traditional channels by offering advanced data analysis, has brought in $31 million in venture financing from Accenture, Mayfield Fund and August Capital. Based in Redwood City, the company has now raised $58 million total, from other backers including Hellman & Friedman, Google AdSense co-founder Georges Harik, Half.com founder Josh Kopelman, and other individual investors.
Aardvark opens to the public, becomes a destination for questions
Aardvark, a social search service, is opening to the public today and turning its homepage into destination for people’s questions.
The company, which started in 2007 and has grown to about 30 employees, offers a way to tap your social network for answers. You e-mail or IM Aardvark with a question and it sends it to people in your social network with expertise in that area. Out of that you get a couple responses, often within… Continue Reading
Ubicom snaps up $4.4M for home networking processors
Home and entertainment processor maker Ubicom, known for making silicon chips used in consumer products like wireless routers, has brought in $4.4 million of a targeted $10 million round of preferred and common stock, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in San Jose, the company is backed by August Capital, Investorcorp Technology Partners, Tenaya Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers Venture Partners), Mayfield Fund and Levensohn Venture Partners. It last raised capital in January, bringing… Continue Reading
Bill.com racks up $8.5M to simplify payments
Bill.com, a startup specializing in software for online bill payment and management, added another $8.5 million to its coffers with investments from August Capital and DCM. The round brings total investment to $17 million and puts David Hornik, a partner at August, on Bill.com’s board.
The Palo Alto-based company automates paperless bill management and integrates it with accounting records. Bill.com says companies that pay bills digitally are more likely pay on time and avoid extra fees and penalties. They… Continue Reading
Mimosa raises $3M for data archiving
Mimosa Systems, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that provides software for data archiving, has brought in $3 million in debt, rights and securities, according to VentureWire. While the investors in the round were not disclosed, the company has received $17 million in a fourth round of funding in the past from August Capital, Clearstone Venture Partners, Dot Edu Ventures, Focus Ventures, JAFCO Ventures and Mayfield Fund.
Philanthropic fund of funds Legacy closes $276M
Legacy Venture, the Palo Alto, Calif. firm that holds a portfolio of other investment funds and distributes returns to charities, announced that it closed a new $276 million fund, its fifth, despite adverse economic conditions. Basically, Legacy takes money from limited partners who commit their profits to charities of their choice. This allows these partners to amplify philanthropic contributions that they would make regardless.
In the past, Legacy has worked with well-established firms like August Capital,… Continue Reading
Swoopo raises $10M more for “entertainment shopping”
Swoopo, an online auction site that claims to offer great deals and high entertainment value, has raised $10 million from August Capital.
The company is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. and has a rather different approach to auctions. Instead of presenting a free-form bidding environment like eBay, Swoopo follows a very specific procedure — every item starts at 15 cents, and each bid increases both the price (in 15-cent increments) and, if you’re coming down to the… Continue Reading
August Capital may get a bigger chunk of profits on $650M fund
August Capital’s announcement that it raised a $650 million fifth fund may be even more impressive than it initially appeared. PEHub reports that the fund is August’s first to include a 30 percent carried interest structure (the percentage of profits used to pay general partners at firms).
Even normally, 30 percent would be on the high side — VentureBeat Editor Matt Marshall tells me the industry standard is closer to 25 percent — but the deal… Continue Reading
Pixazza nabs $3.1 to turn web images into e-commerce links
Pixazza, a company that lets web publishers turn their images into links where users can buy whatever is pictured, just brought in $3.1 million of an anticipated $5.22 million first round of funding from CMEA Ventures, August Capital and Foundation Capital, reports VentureWire. The Mountain View, Calif. company used to be called BeMuz.
Pixazza is added to websites as a few lines of Javascript. Other members of the Pixazza community then manually add the links to… Continue Reading
MMOG-meets-casual game developer Ohai gets funding
Ohai, a company that is trying to combine casual social gaming (Facebook applications) with massive multi-player online games (World of Warcraft), has raised an undisclosed amount from August Capital and Rustic Canyon Partners.
The San Mateo company isn’t saying much more than that, except that it’s hiring engineers. For now, the most notable thing is that it is founded by some well-known names in traditional and casual game development. Company bios below:
Scott Hartsman, VP Production. Scott… Continue Reading
Ubicom rakes in $7M for home networking processors
Processor provider Ubicom, known for making silicon chips used in consumer products like wireless routers, announced that it raised $7 million in a fifth round of financing from August Capital, Mayfield Fund, Levensohn Venture Partners, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners and Investcorp Technology Partners. This brings its total capital raised close to $140 million since its founding in 1996.
Also big news for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ubicom is the promotion of Gangesh Ganesan, formerly vice president of sales… Continue Reading
OpenLane speeds ahead with $10M
OpenLane, an online auto auction service, has brought in $10 million in eighth-round funding from Meritech Capital Partners, August Capital, RPM Ventures and Zilkha Venture Partners — bringing its total capital raised to $75 million, reports VentureWire.
The new money should come in handy considering the gloomy year ahead for the car industry — even though OpenLane says sales have remained stead. It sold about 270,000 cars in 2007, bringing in $60 million in revenue, the… Continue Reading
Social search startup Mechanical Zoo raises $2M more
The Mechanical Zoo, the Googler-packed social search startup, brought in $2 million in convertible promissory note funding from August Capital, reports PE Wire. The same investment firm provided a $6 million first round of funding at the end of October.
As we reported earlier, the San Francisco-based company blends users’ social networks with their search habits, allowing them to identify the exact right people to answer their queries.
Social search product Aardvark: Yahoo Answers meets Twitter — but better
Public details have been scant about the social search product from The Mechanical Zoo, a company chock full of former Googlers that just announced it raised $6 million from August Capital and Baseline Ventures. But for the last three months, I’ve actually been a beta tester for the company’s first product, Aardvark.im.
It’s one of the best web applications I’ve seen during my year with VentureBeat.
The simplest explanation is Yahoo Answers meets Twitter — real-time, rapid… Continue Reading
Social search startup The Mechanical Zoo cages $6M
The Mechanical Zoo, a social search startup founded by a team of former Google employees, has raised $6 million in a first round of funding.
Like many other companies, such as Delver and AskMeGo, The Mechanical Zoo says it’s trying to tailor web search results to personal tastes by tapping into a user’s “social graph”. What does that actually mean? As the company puts it, the service will help users “identify the right person, among the… Continue Reading
Dotcom crash survivor Openlane, a wholesale auto auction site, returns for $25M funding
Openlane, an Internet company that helps auction off automobiles, is just the latest old “B2B” company starting to thrive after struggling in the wake of the first Internet boom.
The company saw 60 percent growth in revenues last year, for a total of more than $60 million, and that growth is accelerating — according to its executives. So the company has just taken $25 million in financing to help maintain momentum.
Openlane is one of those early… Continue Reading
Roundup: Former AOL execs face fraud charges, MetroFi throws in the towel, fingerprinters point fingers, and more
AOL execs add oddly, allege examiners — Eight AOL executives are facing fraud charges at the conclusion of a six-year long investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into alleged revenue overstatement of $1 billion during the company’s merger with Time Warner. Four of the men have already settled. Given the company’s historic performance, it’s surprising the remaining four haven’t gotten away with pleading incompetence. More at the WSJ.
MetroFi municipal WiFi throws in the towel… Continue Reading
Planning for IPO, Mimosa raises another $17M for electronic archiving
Corrected
Mimosa Systems, a startup that helps companies archive emails and other files, has raised a $17 million fourth round of funding. Mimosa calls the latest financing a “mezzanine round,” meaning it should be the last round before an IPO.
The kind of comprehensive archiving that Mimosa offers is necessary for the “eDiscovery” process — namely, the process of searching through a company’s electronic records. With the growing number of legal requirements for corporate record-keeping, including the… Continue Reading
SkyPilot Networks gets $3.4M for municipal WiFi
Municipal WiFi just won’t die. The scheme has failed in city after city, even stumbling in tech-heavy Silicon Valley, yet companies have continued, on and off, to get funding. The latest is SkyPilot Networks, with a comparatively small $3.4 million (compared to its $70+ million total).
SkyPilot makes broadcasting equipment like base stations, as well as tools for mesh networks like antennae. It’s mesh networks, in fact, which are driving much of the remaining growth for… Continue Reading