Ball in Foursquare’s court with $1.35 million round
Location-based social network Foursquare, which has attracted buzz for making nightlife like a game, raised $1.35 million from Union Square Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.
Co-founder Dennis Crowley, who was also behind a similar service called Dodgeball that Google acquired, said there were other angel investors he would reveal next week. This is Foursquare’s first round.
In Foursquare, you “check-in” to places like restaurants and bars through the startup’s iPhone or Android apps. Check-in enough times at… Continue Reading
TripIt launches iPhone app — puts itineraries at your fingertips
TripIt, the online service that lets you create and share your travel itineraries, has launched a free application for the iPhone. The app lets users view their meticulously organized travel plans on the go — even in airplane mode — eliminating the need for cumbersome maps and paper schedules, the company says.
When you view an itinerary in the app, it’s not just a list of next stops. For 500 different sites and brands — resorts,… Continue Reading
Energy and carbon measurement startup AMEE raises $1M
AMEE, short for “Avoiding Mass Extinctions Engine”, calls itself a platform to track “all the energy data on Earth.” That’s an ambitious goal, but the company is better known for simply tracking CO2 emissions and helping others to reduce their energy consumption.
Based in the United Kingdom, AMEE is working on standardizing the carbon tracking industry. It is working with several hundred organizations to develop the platform and also helps individual companies to cut emissions.
O’Reilly AlphaTech… Continue Reading
TripIt raises $5.1M to better organize your travels
As someone who has been home for one weekend of the past six, I know that traveling can be a real pain. While the Internet has eased some burdens such as scheduling and price hunting, it has also created new ones, such as organizing trip details when plans are often made across several sites. That is where a site like TripIt comes in.
There are a lot of online traveling sites such as Kayak (our coverage),… Continue Reading
Investors find Chumby endearing as well with new $12.5 million round
Personal electronic devices with Internet connections are all the rage these days. A small, part touch-screen, part stuffed animal called Chumby is hands down the most endearing of these.
Chumby’s parent company, Chumby Industries, announced today a new round of financing to expand the reach of its cute device. Interestingly, the company is also looking to expand beyond the Chumby into other devices that use screen interaction such as digital picture frames and possibly even LCD… 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 their online advertising management. It provides the technology needed by Web sites to control advertising creative, insert into the right place on a Web site at the right time, and… Continue Reading
Acquia raises $7M for Drupal platform
Founded only a few months ago, Acquia is a North Andover, Mass. startup that capitalizes on a content management system written by its co-founder in 2001.
The Drupal platform is an open-source product that can be used to create blogs, content portals, wikis and other Web 2.0 applications that could potentially compete with companies like WordPress. Acquia’s business will be in helping others set up their projects.
North Bridge Venture Partners led the $7 million investment, Acquia’s… 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 ago. Satisfaction creates customer support pages for companies and their products. But it goes beyond the standard customer support pages. It gives companies a way to provide answers — but… Continue Reading
Wesabe raises $4M for social expense management online
Wesabe, a Web site that lets people manage their finances, and network with network with others for advice, has raised $4 million in a first round of financing.
We first wrote about the Berkeley, Calif. company in November.
The financing was led by Union Square Ventures, of New York, and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, of San Francisco, which provided the company with seed money. Its advantage over incumbent services such as Quicken is that it is online and… 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 sells so-called adservers, which are used to serve and manage ads on the pages of Web sites
Often publishers rely on outside parties to serve their ads. We at VentureBeat do… Continue Reading
TripIt, another travel start-up, raises $1M
TripIt, a San Francisco online travel startup that plans to launch this summer, has raised $1 million in a first round funding from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. One of the company’s executives is Hotwire co-founder Gregg Brockway. Bryce Roberts, of OATV tells VentureBeat he invested because of the team’s deep experience in travel industry.
The funding was first reported by PE Week.
O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures raises $51M fund for hackers
O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, a venture fund affiliated with O’Reilly Media, said it has officially finished raising its first $51 million fund for early stage investing.
It is a small venture firm focused on the Internet, akin in some ways to First Round Capital, a fund run by Josh Kopelman. These firms have more formality than wealthy individual angel investors, but they invest much earlier than the large venture capital firms that like to put millions of… Continue Reading