Social shopping site ThisNext draws $5M
[update 2/5: The company said it will "in the next couple weeks" close an unspecified venture debt funding, Chief Executive Gordon Gould told VentureWire. ]
Social shopping has proven to be a popular concept lately, with a number of companies offering varying ways for shoppers to network with others have similar tastes to their own.
ThisNext’s take gives shoppers a way to comment on products they like, moving them up and down in the popularity rankings. The… Continue Reading
Rubicon Project helps publishers manage ad networks, raises $6M
(Update: Part of the financing was debt; we’ve updated accordingly)
The Rubicon Project, a startup that wants to streamline the process of dealing with multiple ad networks, has taken $6 million in venture and debt funding. It plans to start private testing of the product next week.
The company’s fully-automated software solution will be a platform designed to help publishers sell their unused ad space to the highest bidder.
The company is being quiet about plans, saying only… Continue Reading
SupplyFrame, a search engine for gadgets, electrical components
(Update: Corrected market spending figure to $400 billion)
The search engine revolution continues to ripple through to other parts of the business economy.
SupplyFrame, of Pasadena, Calif. is the latest to offer a specialized search engine for electronic components — and is also offering useful widgets about those components to embed in spreadsheets or Web sites. It has raised $7 million in a second round of funding.
Companies spend $11.6 billion annually in the U.S. to market electronic… Continue Reading
Mimosa raises $17M for email archiving
Mimosa Systems, an email archiving company based in Santa Clara, has raised $17 million in a third round of financing, and plans to use the cash expand into Europe and Japan.
The market for archiving is strong, and Mimosa trails companies such as Zantaz, of Pleasanton, which said it has sales exceeding $100 million last year (there’s a good story about email archiving in the Merc, which includes a look at Zantaz).
Mimosa’s funding, reported by VentureWire… Continue Reading
Meru Networks raises $27.6M
Meru Networks, a Sunnyvale, Calif. company that provides WiFi networks for large companies, has raised $27.6 million in a fourth round of funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week.
D.E. Shaw was joined by existing investors, including Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Clearstone Venture Partners, BlueStream Ventures, JumpStartUp Ventures, Evercore Ventures and NeoCarta Ventures, according to the report.
Meru has raised over $83 million.
Xyratex acquires Ario Data assets at loss?
Xyratex, a U.K.-based maker of data storage systems, said it will acquire some assets and employees from San Jose’s Ario Data Networks for an undisclosed sum.
Ario’s storage product focuses on RAID, Blade and Bridge technologies.
VentureWire (sub required) suggests the sale was made at a loss, but we haven’t confirmed this:
After pumping $44 million into Ario Data Networks Inc. and seeing it through a recapitalization, the company’s VC investors decided to bow out by selling off… Continue Reading