Updated: Benchmark Capital gets a “new” entrepreneur-in-residence: Symantec’s Michael Wolfe
Benchmark Capital is bringing Symantec’s Michael Wolfe on-board as an entrepreneur in residence — and for a second time. [Updated: Wolfe talks about what he's learned as a serial entrepreneur and what he wants to work on at Benchmark below.]
Wolfe co-founded Vontu, a company that makes… Continue Reading
GreenBeat spotlight: Picarro’s “sci-fi” box may prevent cap-and-trade fraud after Copenhagen
As the United States and world consider new policies and legislation to help stop climate change, verifying whether they actually work is going to be a big deal.
And it’s really encouraging to see a bunch of companies already trying to help. Picarro is one of… Continue Reading
Engine Yard’s Rails app support gets another $19M
Engine Yard, a company that helps developers deploy and manage web applications built with the Ruby on Rails programming framework (which is popular for fast web development), has raised $19 million in a third venture round.
This brings the San Francisco company’s total funding to $37.5… Continue Reading
TC50: Clicker is a TV guide for the Internet age
Clicker, a startup launching at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco today, says one of the problems with watching TV online is figuring out what’s on: Where’s our TV guide for the web? Clicker says it’s the first “structured, comprehensive and unbiased guide for online… Continue Reading
oDesk Challenge gives startups a staffing kickstart
oDesk, a site that helps companies recruit and coordinate online workers, has launched the oDesk Challenge, a program to help young startups piece together teams of staffers quickly and efficiently. It is promoting it today at TechCrunch50, a conference in San Francisco.
The first 20 venture-backed… Continue Reading
User-generated fashion mag Polyvore grabs $5.6 million
As fashion mags grapple with vanishing ad pages, user-generated fashion site Polyvore has raked in $5.6 million in a second round of funding.
Users on the site grab images of shoes, clothes and accessories from Polyvore’s library to create outfits and share them with friends —… Continue Reading
Zendesk, the help desk that sits in the cloud, gets another boost
Zendesk, a maker of customer service software used by companies such as Twitter, MSNBC and IDEO, has raised $6 million in a second round of funding, led by Benchmark Capital.
There are plenty of companies offering competing help desk software, but Zendesk has drawn particular attention… Continue Reading
Benchmark took “almost all equity” with FriendFeed sale to Facebook
Benchmark Capital, FriendFeed’s sole venture capital backer, took “almost all equity” in proceeds from the startup’s sale to Facebook on Monday, according to the firm’s lead partner on the deal.
Facebook bought social sharing startup FriendFeed on Monday for $47.5 million, with $15 million in cash… Continue Reading
Mint.com rakes in $14 Million in third round of funding
Personal finance site Mint.com raked in another $14 million in funding, bringing its total to $31 million. The round was led by DAG Ventures, with new financing from Founders Fund and a top-up from existing investors Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Sherpalo.
Although… Continue Reading
Panaya catches $5M for SAP upgrades
Panaya, maker of service software that automates SAP upgrades, has raised $5 million in a second round of funding from Tamares and Benchmark Capital. The Menlo Park, Calif. company says it will use the new money to expand its sales and marketing operations and continue… Continue Reading
GreenRoad raises $15M for safe driving technology
GreenRoad, maker of equipment and software that reinforces safe driving habits, has brought in $15 million in a fourth round of funding to build its customer base and attract partnerships with technology and insurance companies. DAG Ventures led the round, which also included Amadeus Capital,… Continue Reading
Horsley Bridge closes $1.5B fund of funds
Horsley Bridge Partners, a San Francisco firm that invests in venture capital and small buyout firms, has closed a new fund of funds at $1.54 billion targeted specifically for Europe and Asia, reports VentureWire. Existing limited partners provided 95 percent of the financing, but the… Continue Reading
With Flex, Engine Yard targets Rails applications in Amazon’s cloud
Engine Yard, a startup that manages web applications built using the Ruby on Rails programming framework, is planning to expand its services for applications running on Amazon’s infrastructure, adding to its existing Solo product (for smaller developers) with Engine Yard Flex, for larger, industrial-scale deployments.
The… Continue Reading
Eucalyptus Systems raises $5.5M for a hybrid approach to cloud computing
Eucalyptus Systems, which supports an open source platform for companies that want the benefits of cloud computing on their own infrastructure, has raised $5.5 million in a first round of funding led by Benchmark Capital.
Eucalyptus came from research at the University of California, Santa Barbara,… Continue Reading
Peer-to-peer lending site Prosper gets second wind in California
For the last six months, peer-to-peer lending service Prosper has suspended transactions while it waits for the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve its new system for online lending. But now, with the blessing of the California Department of Corporations, the company has legally resumed… Continue Reading
Career site Glassdoor launches interview-prep section
Glassdoor, the career site that gives users details on what it’s like to work at thousands of companies, has launched a new section on its site designed to help the swelling ranks of job seekers better prepare for interviews. Basically, users will now have free… Continue Reading
Marin Software raises $13M to help brands manage paid search campaigns
Marin Software, which offers software to advertisers and agencies to manage ad campaigns across search engines, has raised $13 million in a third round of funding.
The software, delivered online (SaaS), manages these paid search ad campaigns across sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. VentureWire… Continue Reading
Direct2Silicon nabs $9M to lower cost of chip production
Direct2Silicon, the San Jose, Calif. maker of direct-write e-beam lithography software used to create system-on-a-chip integrated circuits, has filled out its second round of funding, now totaling $9 million. The money will go toward market development for its design-for-e-beam technology, which is said to save… Continue Reading
System-on-a-chip software co. Direct2Silicon takes $7.2M
Direct2Silicon, a San Jose, Calif. company that makes direct-write e-beam lithography software to create system-on-a-chip integrated circuits, announced that it’s raised $7.19 million of an anticipated $9.48 million round of funding from investors including Benchmark Capital, Cadence Design Systems and Advantest, reports peHUB.
The company says… Continue Reading
Cotendo launches “next generation” content delivery network
The world of content delivery networks — i.e., services that help serve videos and other content to website visitors — is already dominated by established players like as Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks. But a startup called Cotendo is launching a new network that it… Continue Reading