Online kids’ application Kidzui launches safe search service
Following the acquisitions of Club Penguin for $700 million, there’s been a surge of interest in children’s gaming and social networking sites. Kidzui wants to cash in on the same craze, but rather than pulling kids into a portal of its own, it filters the… Continue Reading
Gigya helps widget companies spread across web, track advertising
Gigya, the Silicon Valley company that lets companies including RockYou track how advertising performs on their widgets across the Web, has raised $9.5 million in a second round of funding from Mayfield Fund and existing investors Benchmark Capital and First Round Capital.
Gigya, based in Palo… Continue Reading
OpenAds lets Web companies take control of ads, raises $15.5M
The online advertising world continues to get shaken up.
OpenAds, a company based in London, is the latest to drive change, undercutting the old guard with a low-cost offering. It offers Web site owners something called an “ad server,” a device lets them take control of… Continue Reading
Jingle Networks rings up $13M for directory assistance
A competitor to free phone directory assistance services offered by Microsoft and Google, Menlo Park’s Jingle Networks runs 1-800-Free-411, one of the most popular in the category.
We’ve written about Jingle before. Back in 2006, we reported that it had just taken $30 million with a… Continue Reading
Social network ad analytics company Invite Media raises angel round
Invite Media is a stealth-mode company that plans to use social networking data to provide more accurate online advertising both within social networks and across the web.
It’s a “new spin on mathematically analyzing data,” co-founder Nat Turner says. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania company has not… Continue Reading
Sendori, monetizing domain names
updated
Sendori, a Silicon Valley based company that lets you bid for traffic from other Web sites, has raised an undisclosed first round of venture capital.
The site operates in an industry that has so far been quite shady, and it’s an improvement over some past practices…. Continue Reading
WeatherBill, a site for betting against bad weather, gets $12.5 million
Updated
WeatherBill, a company that lets you make money by betting on the weather, has raised $12.5 million.
The San Francisco-based company sells contracts that essentially let you put money down against bad weather hurting your business, so you can still get paid even if your business… Continue Reading
Mint, online money manager, raises $4.7M
updated
Mint, the San Francisco company that helps you manage money online, said it has raised $4.7 million in a first round of funding led by Shasta Ventures.
Investors include First Round Capital and Ram Shriram, early investor in Google.
We’ve written several times about this company since… Continue Reading
Mashery, a mashup company, raises less than $5M
San Francisco start-up Mashery has raised another round of capital to help Web companies open their platforms so that developers can build applications on top of them.
By releasing an API, or Application Programming Interface, a company can allow “mashups” of its data, and gain… Continue Reading
Snapvine, another social voice messaging service, raises $10 million
Snapvine, a company that lets you leave voice message on profile pages in social networking sites, has raised $10 million. There are many competitors providing this type of service, without evidence any of them are making much money.
SayNow, one of Seattle-based Snapvine’s many competitors, raised… Continue Reading
Mint: The easiest way to manage your personal finances
[Update: Mint has won the TechCrunch 40 conference's competition, which goes to the most impressive presenting company from among the 40 participants. Mint will receive a $50,000 cash award and other services and awards from corporate sponsors.]
Mint, a long-awaited online tool for managing your personal… Continue Reading
Email company Xobni launches, may steal Techcrunch prize
(Update: CEO Matt Brezina tell us the response has been so strong that he’s closing open access and will make it invite-only this evening.)
Xobni Insight, a new email service that sits on top of your Outlook, launches today at Techcrunch40.
It’s extremely useful and we’ll make… Continue Reading
Satisfaction, the Web 2.0 customer service site, raises $1.3M
[Disclosure: Satisfaction is led by Thor Muller, who is an advisor to VentureBeat. ]
Satisfaction, a San Francisco company that aims to improve online customer service by letting the customers effectively take over the process, has raised $1.3 million seed funding.
VentureBeat reviewed the company two months… Continue Reading
Bazaarvoice raises $9M for product reviews
Bazaarvoice, which incorporates product reviews into e-commerce sites, has declared a $9 million second round of financing, one day after its primary competitor, PowerReviews, announced $15 million in financing.
Despite the fact that the companies provide a similar service, they are quite different. PowerReviews gives its… Continue Reading
Transpera, latest mobile video channel company
Transpera, a Santa Monica, Calif. company that lets users create their own mobile video channels for sharing with friends, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding Intel Capital, IDG Ventures and First Round Capital,
There are several other companies, including MyWaves, doing very similar things. The… Continue Reading
Adserver company, Openads, raises $5M
Openads, the developer of a free, open source product that serves ads for Web sites has raised $5 million in a first round of financing led by Index Ventures.
Also participating are First Round Capital, Mangrove Capital Partners and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. The London, UK company… Continue Reading
Photobucket, Cuts.com, and new video editing tools
Photobucket, a Silicon Valley start-up, has quietly become the third largest video hosting site after YouTube and MySpace — reporting more than 35,000 videos uploaded every day.
Next Tuesday, it announces some extensive image and video editing tools it hopes will help keep bringing people… Continue Reading
Attributor scans web for copyright violations
Updated
Attributor, a Redwood City start-up, is scanning the Web to fingerprint pages for copyrighted audio, video, images and text, to give publishers a way to request that Web sites take down priated content — or pay for it, at least.
The company’s statement is here; there’s… Continue Reading
Jingle gets $30M to grow its free directory assistance service
(Updated below with comments from chief executive George Garrick)
Jingle Networks, a Menlo Park start-up which provides free phone directory assistance, has raised a whopping $30 million more in venture capital — upping the ante in what is now a crowded field.
This area has become popular… Continue Reading
Jingle gets $30M for free directory assistance
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