Demandbase launches lead generation platform with Adobe funding
Here’s an interesting new use of Adobe’s AIR platform for creating hybrid web/desktop applications. With a free AIR app called Demandbase Stream, users can watch in real-time as other businesses visit their websites, then use that info to pursue a sale. The data scrolls across the bottom of their screens like the CNN news ticker, and when you see something interesting, you can look up relevant contacts via the Demandbase Central Platform.
With Stream, chief executive… Continue Reading
Replay Solutions raises $11M to help find software bugs
Replay Solutions, a startup that develops technology to bug-check software during development, has raised more than $11 million in a second round of funding, according to Private Equity HUB, citing a regulatory filing. Backers include new investor Sigma Partners.
Redwood City, Calif.-based Replay says its technology can record and playback software to help developers locate bugs. It raised $4.2 million in 2006.
ScanCafe hits image-scanning milestone, raises round
ScanCafe, a Burlingame, Calif. company that professionally restores old photos and other images, is announcing a new landmark in its two-year existence. It has scanned 10 million images.
The way the service works is that you send your images in, the company uses software and manual techniques to restore the photos, then it organizes the photos for you in a secure online account, while sending you back the originals. You select the images you want to… Continue Reading
YouSendIt gets $14M to send large files
YouSendIt, a company that lets you send and receive large files through your email, has raised $14 million in a third round of funding.
The financing comes from new investor Emergence Capital Partners (the online services-focused firm best-known for backing Salesforce.com) and existing investors Sigma Partners, Alloy Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Cambrian Ventures. YouSendIt raised a $10 million second round last year.
YouSendIt has a range of offerings, including a free version of its basic service… Continue Reading
Power control company iWatt gets $12.4M
IWatt, a Los Gatos, Calif. company that makes power control products, has taken a fifth round of funding for $12.4 million, led by an unnamed strategic investor.
The products that iWatt makes include AC-DC and DC-AC power supplies, coupled inductors and other power devices, and it sells into markets including semiconductors, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. IWatt’s advertises its devices as being able to reduce power consumption and waste.
The company also recently hired former SigmaTel CEO Ron… Continue Reading
Vlingo’s speech recognition for Blackberry officially outcools the iPhone — for now
Vlingo, a Cambridge, Mass, speech recognition company, has just launched an awesome voice-powered interface for Blackberry smartphones.
In a recent post about speech-to-SMS provider Yap, we posited that the ultimate mobile interface would let us navigate a phone using a combination of voice and manual input. Yap’s goal was to get there eventually. But Vlingo, which launches such an application today, has left Yap — and even Microsoft’s heavyweight TellMe — choking on dust.
While voice-activated search… Continue Reading
Hanger Network gets $10M boost for coat hanger campaigning
Few are aware of the looming issue of coat hanger pollution. Yet there they are, lying in heaps, projecting up from overburdened landfills, their anonymous, identical tops crooked into a single a questioning pose: Why? Why so much hanger waste?
Coming to the rescue is Hanger Network In-Home Media, which promotes biodegradable updates of the basic design Thomas Jefferson introduced in the early days of our country. The company, which promotes and sells biodegradable hangars to… Continue Reading
CrownPeak raises $6M for web content management
CrownPeak, a startup that offers online software to help companies manage their web content, has raised $6 million in a second round of funding.
This round brings CrownPeak’s total funding to $10.25 million. It was led by SunAmerica Ventures, with backing from existing investors Sigma Partners and Altos Ventures.
The Los Angeles startup says its customers include 3M, Hyundai Motors and Home Depot. Through its website ContentManagement.com, CrownPeak also offers a more affordable solution for small- and… Continue Reading
ODesk raises $15M to manage remote employees
Updated
Outsourcing technology startup oDesk has raised a $15 million third round of funding led by DAG Ventures.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based oDesk allows companies to hire technology “providers” like programmers and web designers, and it provides companies with the technology to monitor those remote employees. Chief executive Gary Swart says the need for such a site is growing, as the number of companies looking to outsource some tech work and the number of workers tempted by the… Continue Reading
E-commerce company MarketLive raises $20M
MarketLive, a provider of e-commerce retail technology and services, has raised a new $20 million round of financing. Backers include new investors JAFCO Ventures and Northgate Capital, as well as Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Globespan Capital and others.
MarketLive was founded in 1995, and it’s still growing. The Foster City, Calif. company says it added 33 new brands to its portfolio and launched 56 new sites last year. This is MarketLive’s fifth round of funding, according… Continue Reading
Intacct raises another $15M to offer online financial management software
Intacct Corp, a San Jose online financial management software company that competes with Intuit’s Quickbooks, said it has raised an additional $15 million of financing.
The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investors Emergence Capital, Sigma Partners, and Sutter Hill Ventures participated.
This follows the $14 million Intacct raised last year to restart itself financially. It had already raised $45 million previously from Emergence, along with other investors Deloitte & Touche, Hummer Winblad, Goldman Sachs… Continue Reading
Yahoo teams with Vlingo to offer voice search
Updated
With just-announced improvements to its mobile service, Yahoo oneSearch gives customers the ability to search the web by simply speaking into their phones. To make this happen, Yahoo is partnering with startup Vlingo and has led Vlingo’s $20 million second round of funding.
Yahoo isn’t the only big tech company to set its sights on the voice market. Google, for example, may be in talks to acquire internet phone company Skype. (Ebay acquired Skype at the… Continue Reading
RecycleBank gets $30M from Kleiner Perkins to reward recyclers
RecycleBank, a Philadelphia company that rewards people for recycling at home, has raised another $30 million in financing led by Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to VentureWire.
We first reported on RecycleBank last year, when it raised $13.1 million in a first round from RRE Ventures and Sigma Partners, which also invested in the latest round.
The company signs deals with waste disposal companies so that it can track the recycling habits of households… Continue Reading
Voxify raises $15M for voice recognition systems
Voxify is an Alameda, Calif. company that creates self-servicing systems for call centers based off templates of question-and-response menus that are specific to particular industries.
Automated systems like Voxify’s have gradually become better, and the company’s products can handle relatively complex transactions like making reservations and addressing inquiries.
The company has been in close competition over the past couple years with Tellme Networks, which has a slightly different offering. We’ve written more about the complexities of building… Continue Reading
Performance management software company Enkata raises $8M
Performance management software company Enkata Technologies has raised $8 million in financing.
Sigma Partners and Apex Venture Partners led the funding, which Enkata says will accelerate domestic and international growth.
The San Mateo, Calif. company was founded in 1999 and raised $20 million before recapitalizing in 2006, according to VentureWire. We reported on the 2006 financing, totaling $4.88 million, here.
The company’s software is particularly tailored to help service organizations like contact centers and claims operations. Enkata… Continue Reading
The Jellyvision Lab draws $5M for interactive websites
The Jellyvision Lab helps its clients to create interactive, reactive websites that adapt themselves to the needs of their visitors in order to reach some desired goal — for example, buying a computer.
The company also offers pay-per-action tracking software for advertisers, which helps them pay for traffic driven to their sites depending on the action the user takes.
Sigma Partners led the $5 million funding, which was reported by peHUB. Jellyvision previously took an undisclosed round… Continue Reading
HiWired raises $9M for technical support
HiWired is a service company that provides technical support for both businesses and consumers, and has customers including OfficeMax and Cox Communications.
Much like a highly successful public company, LivePerson, HiWired offers outsourced live help and support for everything from gadgets to internet installation. It’s based in Needham, Mass.
The $9 million round was the company’s second, led by North Hill Ventures. The investors from HiWired’s previous $5 million round, Kodiak Venture Partners and Sigma Partners, also… 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
GainSpan receives funding for wireless sensors
Tucked unobtrusively away in corners and out-of-the-way places, sensors record the world around us — tracking air quality, electricity usage, temperature and other variables. The modern world needs such measurements, but installing and maintaining the sensors is costly.
GainSpan is a Sunnyvale, Calif. company that says it can help cut costs by using wireless sensors that tie into the same 802.11 WiFi radio bands that ordinary computers use, which reduces the number and complexity of the… Continue Reading
Blackwave, says it has major storage improvement for video
updated
Blackwave, a video storage company that says it can store video seven to ten times more efficiently than other technologies, has raised $16 million more in a second round of financing. The company’s bold technology claims, however, can’t be verified just yet: It plans to roll out its video product in the first quarter of next year.
The market for video storage is large and increasing, because online video quality is increasing and there are more… Continue Reading