Omidyar Network promises $30M for entrepreneurs in India and Africa.

Omidyar Network promises $30M for entrepreneurs in India and Africa.

Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, says it’s committing $30 million to support global entrepreneurship, particularly in India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Omidyar just made the announcement at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. (He has also been tweeting from the event.) Her eare a couple more details about how the firm plans to invest the money and why, according to the announcement:

Through its commitment, Omidyar Network will support… Continue Reading

Wikipedia gets $2M from Omidyar Network

Wikipedia gets $2M from Omidyar Network

Philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network just announced that it’s making a $2 million grant to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

The investment firm was started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, so the two groups seem like an obvious fit, with their shared do-gooder missions and tech roots. Wikipedia, of course, is extremely popular (the press release cites comScore numbers showing the site receives 300 million unique monthly visitors and is the… Continue Reading

Roundup: An Apple netbook hoax, a BlackBerry sales victory, and more

Roundup: An Apple netbook hoax, a BlackBerry sales victory, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Is this the new Apple netbook? — Cult of Mac published an image from “a trusted contributor.” But no, it actually turned out to be a student-created wooden model. Oops.

RIM’s BlackBerry Curve unseats Apple’s iPhone in sales – One of the big drivers of this victory? An aggressive “buy one get one free” campaign by Verizon.

FTC looks at overlap of Apple and Google boards — The question is whether those ties reduce competition between… Continue Reading

Twitter went main street yesterday, goes enterprise today

Twitter went main street yesterday, goes enterprise today

Last month, micro-blogging site Twitter went mainstream, at least according to my own litmus test: The hosts of my local radio station here in the Bay Area talked about a guy who lost his job offer from Cisco for tweeting how he hated the job. And my hairdresser told me she finally was on Twitter, after saying in February she’d never heard of it. Twitter is everywhere.

And now, in April, Twitter is going one step… Continue Reading

Sunlight Foundation gets another $4M from Omidyar

Sunlight Foundation gets another $4M from Omidyar

The Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group that uses the Internet to increase government transparency, has received a $4 million grant from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s philanthropic investment firm the Omidyar Network.

Sunlight was founded in 2006 and has helped create a number of government-related databases, including OpenCongress.org, Congresspedia.org, OpenSecrets.org, and EarmarkWatch.org. OpenCongress, for example, has detailed profiles of bills, senators, representatives, and committees — this is all publicly available information, but the Sunlight Foundation tries to… Continue Reading

World of Good raises $1.1M for socially conscious shopping

World of Good raises $1.1M for socially conscious shopping

World of Good, which operates an eBay-powered online marketplace for ethical shopping, has raised another $1.1 million in funding, according to VentureWire.

The Emeryville, Calif. company emphasizes small artisans in developing countries. In order to sell products on the World of Good website, you must be certified as meeting environmental and ethical standards by an independent “trust provider” such as Transfair USA, Co-op America, or Aid to Artisans. The products include everything from electronics to jewelery… Continue Reading

Aragon buys software code analysis co. Krugle

Aragon Consulting Group announced its acquisition of San Mateo, Calif.-based Krugle, a provider of code analysis and maintenance technology. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Krugle had been shopping for a buyer for a while, needing funds to continue marketing its first product — Krugle Enterprise, a searchable source code library — released 10 months ago. Aragon, which specializes in outsourcing software development for companies, says it will continue to offer Krugle… Continue Reading

Goodmail working on tool for more secure email transfer

Goodmail working on tool for more secure email transfer

Goodmail Systems, a company that administers secure email exchanges, just added $5 million to close a third round of funding. Based in Mountain View, Calif., it says it will apply the new money to develop its flaship product, CertifiedEmail, so that trusted messages containing multimedia and active content can be opened more saftely.

Goodmail allows major corporations like Wal-Mart, McKinsey and Dell to send billing and proprietary information securely but could also possibly be used by… Continue Reading

Why hasn’t Digg made any progress? It’s worth only $164M now

Why hasn’t Digg made any progress? It’s worth only $164M now

Has the news site Digg really made no progress in two years?

That’s what you’d have to conclude from the value investors are placing on Digg after their most recent investment: $164 million.

You’ll remember the hyped BusinessWeek article from more than two years ago that reported “people in the know” said the company’s value was “easily worth $200 million.” The reference suggested Digg and its investors were hoping to steer perceptions that it was worth at… Continue Reading

Wikia cuts staff by 10 percent

Wikia, a company that provides wiki and search services and was started by Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales, has let go about 10 percent of its employees. The layoffs came as part of a restructuring that will refocus the San Francisco company on sales and marketing. To this end, it is actually hiring in those areas, according to Wales.

Many other startups in the Valley have already turned to or are eyeing layoffs as a strategy to… Continue Reading

Digg beefs up its funding for major expansion plans

Digg beefs up its funding for major expansion plans

With over 30 million monthly unique users, Digg is a juggernaut of a site. Despite perpetual rumors of an imminent acquisition by major players like Google or Microsoft, the social voting site is now gearing up for a major expansion on its own. And it’s just secured a big round of funding to make that expansion possible.

Interestingly, almost half of Digg’s users are outside of the U.S. now, the service claims on its blog. So… Continue Reading

Roundup: Scrabulous returns, Dell’s music player and more

Roundup: Scrabulous returns, Dell’s music player and more

Here’s the latest action:

Scrabulous returns as Wordscraper — The popular Facebook application was redesigned and relaunched less than 48 hours after it was taken down due to a potential legal tussle with Scrabble-maker Hasbro.

Dell tests digital music player — The computer maker stopped selling players in 2006 due to disappointing sales, but it has a new offering that could go on sale as early as September.

Job site Monster acquires search company Trovix for $72.5 million in cash — Monster… Continue Reading

Meetup.com raises undisclosed sum from Union Square Ventures

Meetup.com, a site that enables people to organize get-togethers around their common interests, has raised an undisclosed sum from Union Square Ventures.

Meetup, which was founded in 2002, has been used to organize political advocacy groups, book clubs, sports teams, urban tech meetups and much more. The company previously raised $2 million from eBay, Draper Fisher Jurveston, Omidyar Network, Allen & Company and Esther Dyson.

Seesmic raises another $6M for video comments

Seesmic raises another $6M for video comments

Updated

Seesmic, a startup that lets users post short video comments and snippets, has raised $6 million in a second round of funding. The new round was led by Omidyar Network, the firm created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and Wellington Partners.

The San Francisco company has been dubbed the “Twitter of video” — through its platform, users can easily record and post short video segments to their blogs, social networks or to the Seesmic site itself…. Continue Reading

IGNIA Fund raises $20.6M to help Latin America’s poorest

IGNIA Fund raises $20.6M to help Latin America’s poorest

The IGNIA Fund has raised $20.6 million that it plans to invest in companies targeting Latin America’s poorest residents. The round was led by Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment group created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. IGNIA’s financing is already larger than the $17 million that Omidyar Network helped raise for a similar fund in India, and it plans to raise more — $50 to $75 million in all, starting with a second round this… Continue Reading

Google.org, Omidyar, Soros, create small-business Indian investment company

Google.org, Omidyar, Soros, create small-business Indian investment company

Google.org, the Omidyar Network and the Soros Economic Development Fund are creating a $17 million investment company that will provide capital to small and medium-sized businesses in India.

Microfinance lending schemes, or those that give money to small, traditional businesses, have been active in India for years, while venture firms and other investors have been pumping millions into Indian technology startups and later stage established companies. This fund is intended to bridge the gap between personal… Continue Reading

Shared database MetaWeb gets $42M boost

Shared database MetaWeb gets $42M boost

updated
Metaweb Technologies, the San Francisco company developing an open shared database called Freebase to store and edit the world’s information, has just gotten a big boost from Benchmark Capital and Goldman Sachs.

The two firms have invested in a $42.4 million second round of capital for the company, VentureBeat has learned. The company could not be reached for comment. A partner at Benchmark was reached, but he declined comment. [Update: Benchmark followed up Tuesday confirming the… Continue Reading

Federated Media blog ad network raises $4.5 million

Federated Media blog ad network raises $4.5 million

[Updated: We've corrected the article below, based on further reporting. Regulatory filings about venture capital financings are tricky, because they're often late, and misleading. That's why the proposal to bring more transparency is a good one.]

Federated Media, a popular but sometimes controversial ad network for blogs, has raised another $4.5 million in funding, according to PE Hub’s read of the company’s recent regulatory filing.

Returning backers include New Enterprise Associates and Omidyar Network, according to the… Continue Reading

Metacafe sold?, Common Sense raises $, Calacanis joins Sequoia, AskCity & more

Metacafe sold?, Common Sense raises $, Calacanis joins Sequoia, AskCity & more

(Update: Apologies, we’d meant to put a questionmark in the headline, so we’ve fixed. We’re checking on this rumor, but now we’re getting more doubts about this supposed sale)

Here’s the latest in Silicon Valley tech world:

Video site MetaCafe to be sold for $200 million? — That’s what this site says. We reviewed Metacafe, which recently moved to Palo Alto, here.

Common Sense Media, a site where families can review movies, films, TV shows, games, raises $4.25… Continue Reading

World of Good raises $4M for “fair trade” goods

World of Good, a Berkeley start-up that provides “fair trade” globally-sourced goods, has raised $4 million in a second round of funding, according to PE Week. Backers include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Omidyar Network and Cliff Higgerson.