VentureBeat

Lexy lets you dial-a-podcast on-demand

Lexy, a service that lets you hear on-demand short-form news and entertainment podcasts, called Quikcasts, on your mobile phone, just nabbed $1.25 million in seed funding from KPG Ventures. The San Francisco-based company says it aims to eliminate the time it takes for users to upload audio files to their phones.

Somewhat oddly, the service doesn’t require you to download any applications. Instead, you dial 415-692-4933, and your predefined playlist is there waiting for you on… Continue Reading

JS-Kit nabs SezWho as blog comment services converge

Blog commenting services have been consolidating over the past year, thinning out a once crowded market. Most recently, JS-Kit, maker of blog widgets for polls, ratings and comments, acquired competing commenting company SezWho — which itself absorbed blog semantic search firm Tejit last May. And just last fall, Wordpress parent company Automattic bought comment provider IntenseDebate. No financial terms were disclosed for any of these deals.

JS-Kit says it will keep the SezWho service live for… Continue Reading

Diddit launches surprisingly addictive activity guide

The development team behind search company Inktomi is launching a new service tonight called Diddit, which functions as both an activity guide and a way to share stories and accomplishments.

Diddit is a bit like business-rating services such as Yelp and Citysearch, but with a broader range of listings, and a dash of “story-sharing” sites like Tokoni. It includes individual attraction descriptions as well as lists of everything from Harry Potter books to free activities in… Continue Reading

Social investing site Cake Financial raises $1.26M more

Cake Financial, a social networking site for investing, is raising a $1.5 million addition to its first venture round, with $1.26 million raised so far.

The San Francisco-based company lets users import their portfolio data from multiple brokerages and share their trades with other users. You can follow the investments of other users on the site, especially those whose investments doing particularly well. The site’s big selling point is the quality of its top one percent… Continue Reading

National Payment Card Association raises $2M to lower debit fees

The National Payment Card Association has raised $2 million from KPG Ventures. The San Francisco company says its “debit settlement” system allows merchants and consumers to pay lower transaction fees on debit card payments by processing those payments through the Federal Reserve Automated Clearing House. The system is currently deployed in gas stations and convenience stores, the company says.

Sportgenic raises $10M for sports ad network

Sportgenic, a company that claims to provide high-value market reach to sports advertisers and marketers, has raised $10 million in a second round of funding.

The company targets specific groups of sports enthusiasts based on their predilections, from country club members to outdoorsmen and team athletes. It claims to have 350 publisher sites that it places ads on.

Adams Street Partners led the funding round, with participation from previous investors Alsop Louie Partners, KPG Ventures and Greycroft… Continue Reading

BT buys Ribbit for $105M

BT, the dominant British telecommunications company, has acquired Ribbit, a company that has styled itself “Silicon Valley’s first phone company,” for $105 million.

VentureBeat first heard news of the deal in July and reported it. At the time, the company’s spokesman Don Thorson adamantly denied that any deal had happened, but it was clear something was up. Today, the company confirmed the amount of the deal.

This is an impressive performance for Ribbit, which first launched in… Continue Reading

Source: Ribbit, “Silicon Valley’s first phone company,” bought by BT [Updated: Confirmed]

Updated with a response from the company.

Ribbit, a company that has styled itself “Silicon Valley’s first phone company,” has been purchased by BT, the dominant British telecommunications company, we’re hearing.

[Update: A company spokesperson has gotten back to us denying that there’s been an acquisition. However, the company wouldn’t comment on whether or not acquisition talks were taking place. There are a few possibilities here. One is that it my source (and I) are completely wrong… Continue Reading

NileGuide takes another $8 million to enrich travel experiences

NileGuide, the online service that aims to help with every part of a trip, has raised a second round of funding.

The company now offers comprehensive travel planning to over 75 destinations around the world and claims to be adding five new ones a month. This new funding will no doubt help that rapid expansion as part of NileGuide’s business is hiring local experts to help make sure that trips to different parts of the world… Continue Reading

Ribbit, “Silicon Valley’s first phone company”

Ribbit is a remarkable new company, and it knows it: It calls itself “Silicon Valley’s first phone company.”

That sounds like marketing overreach for a young company barely launched, but when you look at what it’s doing, you can see why they can get carried away.

Ribbit, based in Mountain View, Calif., has developed technology, built on years of prior work of its founders, that lets a developer insert phone software into any Web application. The developer… Continue Reading

Qwaq, offering a 3D virtual workplace

Qwaq, a Silicon Valley company seeking to let company work groups collaborate in a 3D online virtual environment, has just raised $7 million in financing.

Virtual collaboration might sound fanciful, but increasingly experts are saying this is where the office environment is headed. Well-known venture capitalist John Doerr is just the latest to speak of a 3D “radically immersive” Web and to say that he is looking to invest in it, though he is not the… Continue Reading

SezWho raises $1 million for comment ratings

updated

The company, whose comment-ratings system you can see in the comments section of this blog, scored the capital from KPG Ventures. SezWho’s tool asks “was this comment helpful?” and rates people who comment on a scale of one-to-five.

Commentators have profiles that contain their rating and links to their past comments, which you can see by hovering over a link above the comment. The idea is that offering links to past comments can improve a blog’s… Continue Reading

Doppelganger launches its musical virtual world, vSide

Doppelganger, a virtual world site, has just expanded its offering aimed at teenagers and young adults– with an emphasis on music, dance, and chilling out at bars.

The new site, called vSide, finds itself competing against a number of other virtual worlds, from Second Life, IMVU and Habbo Hotel. While it will have to fight for an audience, the market is hot for these companies if they are successful. Disney recently acquired another site, Club Penguin,… Continue Reading