Widget-maker Slide raises $50 million at $550 million valuation

Widget-maker Slide raises $50 million at $550 million valuation

Updated

Widget-maker Slide has raised nearly $50 million at a $550 million valuation from two private equity funds, Fidelity and T-Rowe Price, according to the New York Times, with the two firms buying a total of around a nine percent stake in the company.

San Francisco-based Slide… Continue Reading

Parker’s Project Agape = Friendster + Facebook?

Parker’s Project Agape = Friendster + Facebook?

Entrepreneur Sean Parker’s latest undertaking is Project Agape, a secretive start-up working to empower people to further their political or social cause using the Internet.

Parker, 27, isn’t sharing much publicly about the company yet, but it’s worth noting because Parker tends to make waves when… Continue Reading

Quantcast, traffic measuring company, raises about $5.7M

Quantcast, a San Francisco start-up that measures the traffic on other sites, has raised around $5.7 million in Series A funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week. Investors included the Founders Fund and Revolution Capital, chief executive Konrad Feldman confirmed with VentureBeat… Continue Reading

Ooma, home communications co., raises $12M

Updated

Ooma, a secretive Palo Alto, Calif. company that has labored for more than two years to produce a telecommunications product for the home, has raised $12M of an $18M Series B round, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week. Return backers include Worldview… Continue Reading

Geni aims to build family tree for whole world

Geni aims to build family tree for whole world

Geni, a new start-up in Los Angeles, wants to do for families what LinkedIn does for business contacts: Create one giant tree that shows you who is connected to who.

The world may be getting smaller; Geni, if successful, will make it tinier still.

Geni has just… Continue Reading

Facebook “definitely” not for sale

Facebook “definitely” not for sale

Facebook, the social-networking Web site courted by Yahoo, isn’t for sale, board member Peter Thiel tells Bloomberg.

“It’s going to remain an independent company,” Thiel said in an interview last week. “The plan is to actually build it, maybe at some point take it public,… Continue Reading

The “FF class” of stock, for founders who want cash early

The “FF class” of stock, for founders who want cash early

(Updated with more details on how FF works)

A form venture capital funding in Silicon Valley is getting increased interest from founders of start-ups.

It is called the “FF class” of stock, for founders who want to cash out a small percentage of their stake in a… Continue Reading

Jaxtr, an easy way to phone, launches service — with at least $1M in funding after all

See our story here. Initially, Jaxtr’s chief executive told VentureBeat he hadn’t raised any money, saying it was self-funded. However, comments on our story yesterday helped ferret out that he had indeed raised angel money, apparently just over $1 million in convertible. We’ve updated story.

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Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund

Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund

The Founders Fund, the venture firm led by former PayPal chief executive Peter Thiel, has hired Sean Parker, the controversial entrepreneur, who has just turned 27, as a managing partner.

Parker somehow attracts attention wherever he goes. He has already launched three well-known companies. At… Continue Reading

Slide gets big VC round for its slideshow product

Slide gets big VC round for its slideshow product

Slide, the San Francisco start-up that lets you create slide shows from your photos or other content, has raised a large third round of funding from Khosla Ventures and Mayfield Fund.

The amount remains undisclosed, but we’ve heard it is more than the company got for… Continue Reading