VentureBeat

Mascoma teams with Chevron to turn ethanol byproduct into diesel and jet fuel

Soon after announcing funding for Soane Energy — a company working to clean up its oil extraction projects — Chevron released news that it will partner (PDF) with biofuel maker Mascoma to turn lignin, a byproduct of ethanol production, into diesel and jet fuel.

If the technology takes hold, it could nearly double the productivity and efficiency of ethanol plants. This is important, considering the national emphasis on ethanol derived from agricultural sources like corn and… Continue Reading

Live event ticket search engine FanSnap lands $5M

FanSnap, one of the more visible startups competing with Ticketmaster as a live event ticket destination (even though it doesn’t sell tickets itself, it just aggregates them), has raised $5 million in a new round of funding from Highland Capital Partners. The site says it currently has more than 12 million tickets to upwards of 30,000 sports, theater and concert events on offer. It plans to use the new financing to fuel further product development.

To… Continue Reading

GE participates in $14.2M for Advanced Electron Beams

General Electric announced today that it has poured more cash into Advanced Electron Beams (AEB), a company working on making electron beam technology more energy efficient. With electron beams used widely to instigate industrial and manufacturing chemical reactions, the company’s offerings could add up to substantial energy savings if it can increase its market share.

Flagship Ventures led the round of $14.2 million — AEB’s third — which also included, Atlas Venture, General Catalyst Partners, RockPort… Continue Reading

Overseas Craigslist rival OLX brings in $5M to fuel rapid growth

OLX, a self-styled Craigslist competitor that has gained traction abroad, announced that it’s raised $5 million in a third-round of capital to continue its expansion in 87 countries and 39 languages. It will use the money to improve its site and beef up its marketing efforts (though calling itself “the largest free classifieds site no one’s ever heard of” might not be the best strategy).

It’s likely that New York and Buenos Aires-based OLX will also… Continue Reading

ScanScout nabs $5.1M for contextual video advertising

ScanScout, an online advertising network that places ads in contextually relevant video content, just brought in $5.1 million of an anticipated $8.1 million third round of financing, according to PE Hub. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the company’s backers include General Catalyst Partners, Time Warner, First Round Capital and famed Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway.

ScanScout last raised funding in May 2007, bringing in $7 million. Created by two MIT graduates, it was initially seeded in 2005… Continue Reading

Stealthy decision engine Hunch.com raises $2M

Hunch.com, the secretive self-dubbed “online decision engine,” announced that it brought in $2 million in a first round of funding — even though very little information is available about it anywhere on the web. For now, its web site is simply a form people can use to request notification when the product finally launches.

The company’s only defining feature is that it hired Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake to be its chief product officer following her departure… Continue Reading

VC-backed Cash4Gold attracts complaints (updated)

[Updated: Cash4Gold representative Weronika Cwir has responded, and vehemently denied many of the allegations made in this article. She said the main source VentureBeat quoted was a short-term employee terminated by the company who has malicious intent. Below is her response in italics:]

Virtually every point made by the author of the posting is false or misleading. Following is a list of some of those statements:

1) It is false to claim there is a Cash4Gold “scam.”… Continue Reading

Deca.tv snaps up $10M for online production studio

Deca.tv, the web site of the Digital Entertainment Corporation of America, just brought in $10 million in a second round of funding to produce and distribute video content across the internet.

Based in Santa Monica, Calif., the company is the brainchild of Sony Pictures alums Chris Kimbell and Michael Wayne, who were interested in creating professional-grade digital shows for a variety of other web properties. They already have a project with popular blog BoingBoing in the… Continue Reading

Underdog Roost lands $8 million for real estate search, foreclosure watch

Roost, a real estate search engine that aggregates listings from the reliable Internet Data Exchange (IDX), has brought in $8 million in second-round funding. At the same time, it announced that new information about 1.5 million foreclosure-related properties will now be available on its web site — bumping its total listings to 3.1 million.

Much like competitors Zillow, Trulia and Redfin, Roost provides basic details on properties, including size, number of bedrooms, etc. Now it also… Continue Reading

Ticket search engine FanSnap scores $5.5M

FanSnap, a search engine that helps users find event tickets at the last minute, has landed $5.5 million in second-round financing to finish building out its service (currently in beta), and to add new ticket vendors. The round was led by General Catalyst Partners.

Before you think “Geez, as if we need another ticket site,” take a closer look. FanSnap isn’t the same as Ticketmaster and its ilk. It actually sits on a higher level, integrating seamlessly with feeds from other… Continue Reading

Mobile search and ad company Jumptap raises $26 million more

Mobile search and advertising company Jumptap has raised $26 million in a fourth round of funding led by AllianceBernstein, with all previous investors participating.

The company has positioned itself as an alternative to Google’s search and ad services for mobile devices. The largest carrier in the country, Verizon, is partnering with Google for these services. But Jumptap has business relationships with AT&T and 16 other carriers of various sizes, and has said it reaches around… Continue Reading

Elemental Technologies raises $7.1M for video software

Elemental Technologies, a Portland, Ore. provider of parallel video processing software, has raised $7.1 million in new funding led by General Catalyst Partners and Voyager Capital.

Elemental says its software can perform video encoding, transcoding and filtering at unprecedented speeds without sacrificing quality by using general purpose graphics processing units (GPUs). Its first product is a video conversion application called the Badaboom Media Converter.

Low cost, super-efficient solar cells? Newly funded, Wakonda Technologies says it’s possible

In the solar cell market, there are three broad categories. Thin-film manufacturers produce cells that convert little of the sun’s energy to electricity, but are dirt cheap. Opposite thin-film, companies like Spectrolab and Emcore make highly efficient, but very expensive cells. Between are the standard solar photovoltaic makers, with average efficiencies, and average prices.

The result is a pricing balance that gives each group a slice of the overall market. But what if it were possible… Continue Reading

Nanotech chip timing co. Sand 9 raises $8M

Quartz timing is old hat for wristwatches and clocks, but surprisingly enough, it’s still used in state-of-the-art computers. Sand 9 is the latest in a new generation of startups that wants to update timing for silicon chips.

If they’re successful, the cost and form factor for chips could shrink, and their uses could expand — which would be a significant boon for compact mobile devices. However, Sand 9 has plenty of competition, including Multigig, which just… Continue Reading

Big companies line up to invest in cellulosic — Mascoma is latest beneficiary, gets $81M

With oil past $120 a barrel and possibly headed to $200, cellulosic ethanol companies are looking like a smarter investment choice every day. Following the increase of Range Fuels’ second funding to $166 million, its competitor Mascoma has pulled the wraps off an $81 million funding of its own, with $10 million coming a major oil and gas producer, Marathon Oil Corporation.

Range, Mascoma, Coskata and others are all racing to raise huge amounts in an… Continue Reading

E-commerce company Retail Convergence raises $25 million

Retail Convergence is an e-commerce company formed out of one purchase, nine year old off-price retailer site SmartBargains.com, and newly-launched invite only private sale site Ruelala.com.

Investors include General Catalyst Partners, New England Development, Breakaway Ventures and Mugar Enterprises.

Ruelala.com is sort of like invite-only social network ASmallWorld, a social network that only lets you in if you’re very wealthy, or if you know a lot of wealthy people. Ruelala provides well-heeled online shoppers exclusive access to… Continue Reading

Price-setting company SignalDemand gets $20M

SignalDemand, a startup that delivers software-as-a-service to help manufacturers set their prices, has raised a hefty $20 million second round of funding.

Chief executive Michael Neal says the money will go toward international expansion and to continue SignalDemand’s “march across verticals.” The company focuses on “disassembly” markets — namely, companies who take raw materials and disassemble them into products like beef and lumber. Until they’re approached by SignalDemand , most of these companies rely on Microsoft… Continue Reading

Imprivata, a secure access innovator, raises $15M

Imprivata is a Lexington, Mass. company that is working on single sign-on authentication technology, which consolidates all of a corporate user’s accounts to a single password and adds additional security measures to prevent hackers.

The company’s software works together with physical location trackers like keycards, so that an employee’s account will be unusable if, for instance, his location tracker shows him to be in a different place than the computer he’s logging in at.

SAP Ventures provided… Continue Reading

Mascoma takes on $50 million more for cellulosic ethanol

Mascoma, an East Coast biofuel startup with a multi-pronged approach to commercializing cellulosic ethanol, has just become one of the most heavily funded companies of its kind with a $50 million funding reported by peHUB.

Based in Cambridge, Mass., Mascoma is in the process of building several demonstration-scale ethanol plants in three other states: Michigan, New York and Tennessee. It’s partnered with a variety of different corporations and universities at each location.

What that boils down to… Continue Reading