VentureBeat

Greystripe raises $5.5M for mobile ads

Greystripe, maker of a software platform for developing ad-supported games for mobile phones, announced that it brought in $5.5 million in third-round funding from Incubic Venture Capital, Steamboat Ventures and Monitor Ventures.

The San Francisco, Calif. company has formed partnerships with several game developers in order… Continue Reading

RazorGator raises $10M in debt for sold-out event ticketing

RazorGator, an online ticket vendor specializing in tickets to sold-out sporting and entertainment events, just brought in $10 million in debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital. The Los Angeles-based company says it will use the money to aggressively scale up its operation.

The company already… Continue Reading

Fanzter raises $2M for celebrity trend tracker Coolspotters

Coolspotters, a site that aggregates celebrity style trends in wiki-fashion, just snagged $2 million in a second round of capital for its parent company Fanzter. Today’s homepage, for example, highlights Ashton Kutcher’s avid use of Twitter, Bruce Willis’ sexy Ray-Ban shades and John Mayer’s Blackberry… Continue Reading

PopularMedia raises $8M, launches widget

PopularMedia, a social media marketing company, has raised $8 million in a third round of funding, according to VentureWire. The round was led by DAG Ventures, with participation from existing backers Sequoia Capital and Steamboat Ventures.

The San Francisco startup’s latest product is SocialNotes, a widget… Continue Reading

Ontela claims $10M for mobile to computer photo transfers

Ontela is a Seattle-based startup that helps consumers move photos from their mobile phone to their computers, charging a monthly fee of $2.99 for the service.

The company benefits from the profusion of different phone and computer models, which make it difficult for manufacturers or carriers… Continue Reading

Disney’s Steamboat Ventures looking to raise $200M fund

Steamboat Ventures is planning to raise a third fund, worth $200 million, PE Week reports (subscription required). The backer will be Steamboat’s owner, The Walt Disney Co; another, Europe-focused Steamboat fund is also in the works.

Steamboat typically invests in digital media companies — whether in… Continue Reading

Passenger gets $8M for market research on private social networks

Although Passenger calls itself an “on-demand customer collaboration” company, it’s probably simpler and more accurate to call it what it is: A market research firm operating through private, white-label social networks.

Putting consumers in a controlled online environment, where they can nevertheless interact with each other,… Continue Reading

Rosum raises $15 million for mobile GPS alternatives

Rosum has raised $15 million to invest in its navigation technology which is an alternative to global positioning system (GPS).

The Redwood City, Calif., company uses signals embedded in broadcast TV signals to fix the location of different moving objects. It serves as an alternative to… Continue Reading

Roundup: Giving up on the “mobile web,” cleantech gets crunched, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Mobile enthusiast gives up on “mobile web” – Russell Beattie, a Silicon Valley developer and mobile enthusiast who spent two years working at Yahoo Mobile before launching a start-up called Mowser, has given up on the mobile sector. He writes: “The general… Continue Reading

Kyte raises $6.1M to become media platform

Video site Kyte has raised another $6.1 million in venture funding to push forward with a new broadcasting platform. Although anyone can use it, the platform seems targeted at big media companies, and Kyte says it’s already partnered with four major music labels, as well… Continue Reading

Kapow raises $11.6M more to provide mashup technology

Kapow Technologies, which sells software to companies that lets them assemble their own “mashup” applications by gathering data from around the web, has raised a $11.6 million third round of financing.

Mashup technologies have become increasingly important lately, now that data has proliferated around the Web… Continue Reading

Vobile joins race to help find copyright infringement in video, raises $7M more

Vobile, one of several companies hoping to help content producers crack down on copyright infringement in video, has raised $7 million more in financing.

We previously wrote about the Silicon Valley company here, when Facebook chief financial officer Gideon Yu invested. The latest round was led… Continue Reading

EdgeCast, a content delivery network, raises $6 million

updated
Content delivery networks are increasingly important to large media companies that want to provide play no-delay, high quality music and videos over the web.

CDNs are distributed computing systems, built to smoothly and quickly transmit large media files like videos and music online to many users…. Continue Reading

56.com aims to become YouTube of China, raises $20M

updated
While YouTube ran away with the video-sharing crown in the United States, the race is still heated in China, the world’s second largest Internet market and fastest-growing.

There, two leaders are fighting it out, Tudou.com and 56.com. Tudou commands 22 percent of searches for video on… Continue Reading

Citysearch, Merchantcircle connect their local business services

Citysearch, an online guide service about local US businesses, has partnered with MerchantCircle, in an effort to hold their own in the increasingly competitive area of local reviews.

The move comes as Citysearch is under attack from newer, fresher sites like Yelp, which offers reviews about… Continue Reading

MerchantCircle, helps small businesses market online — aggressively

Online advertising remains hot. But with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo fighting to serve advertising to large companies and publishers, smaller business clients are left neglected.

MerchantCircle, a controversial Silicon Valley company helping thousands of small businesses market themselves online, has raised $10 million in financing to… Continue Reading

Roundup: [Update: Facebook takes dip, maybe?], Crescendo Ventures, and more

Here’s the latest:

1) Another Googler goes to Facebook, to head its developer platform
2) Facebook traffic apparently took a dip last month — [Update: Or didn't. See Om's update, and a big looping conversation about Facebook on Techmeme]
3) Madonna latest in string of musicians to ditch… Continue Reading

Video delivery is hot: Move Networks raises $34M, BitTorrent’s surprise

Move Networks, a company offering video delivery technology for customers such as ABC, Fox, CW, Televisa, Discovery and ESPN.com, has raised a whopping $34 million round of capital.

This makes Move one the best funded video delivery companies out there. Late last year, it raised $11.3… Continue Reading

VoodooVox, offering in-call ads, raises $8.1M

VoodooVox, a New York start-up that provides advertising within phone calls, said it has raised $8.1 million in a fourth round of financing.It is led by Softbank Capital, and includes existing investors Apax Partners, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and Village Ventures, also participated in the round.

VoodooVox’s… Continue Reading

Passenger: Social network software for companies to get customer feedback

Passenger, a Los Angeles company that provides social networking software to companies so that they can privately solicit customer input on products and ideas, has raised another $8.3 million in financing.

Walt Disney-backed Steamboat Ventures has joined Shelter Capital Partners and StarVest Partners in the financing…. Continue Reading