Babble raises $1.3M for online parenting advice
Babble Media , an online magazine and social network for hip, stylish parents, has added $1.25 million to a first round of funding , bringing its total to $3.25 million. The New York based company, a spin-off from digital lifestyle magazine Nerve, says it will use the money to build its community tools.
Aiming to appeal to what it calls "a new generation of parent," the site runs articles that you wouldn’t see on other parenting… Continue Reading
Babble Media peddles parenting advice to city-dwelling hipsters
Now two years old, online magazine Babble Media — the Nerve.com spin-out targeting young, stylish parents — just raised $2 million from Village Ventures to continue developing its site and grow its sales operations, reports VentureWire. The New York-based company hopes to tack on an additional $500,000 before closing the round. This shouldn’t be too difficult considering the name recognition that came with its founder and now chief executive, Rufus Griscom, who previously headed up… Continue Reading
Extreme Reach grabs $1.5M for video advertising
Extreme Reach, a company that integrates advertisements into digital videos across web, television and mobile platforms, just brought in $1.5 million in first-round funding to build its sales and marketing operations.
Based in Needham, Mass., the firm effectively holds clients’ hands through the process from the point of ad creation through performance tracking. It says that many companies have shied away from investing in digital video ads because they aren’t familiar enough with the process. Extreme… Continue Reading
TopTenReviews raises $6 million for shopping comparisons
TopTenReviews has raised $6 million to expand its business of providing consumers with side-by-side product and pricing comparisons, VentureWire reported.
Investing companies include Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures. Both will have board seats. TopTenReviews.com helps consumer shop by providing research and other data on technology and entertainment products and services.
The company will use the money to add to its staff of 50 in Ogden, Utah, and to offer new features. Stan Bassett, president, said the… Continue Reading
Bertelsmann invests in ImageSpan’s technology for automating royalty payments
ImageSpan hopes to make a mint by counting up the pennies that artists and media companies are owed every time someone downloads a song or plays a video over the internet.
One of the nightmares of the digital age is how to track what an artist is owed by all of the people who use that artist’s work online. Currently, that problem of tracking usage and royalties is solved using an army of attorneys. It often… Continue Reading
Travel Ad Network raises $15 million round
Travel Ad Network has raised $15 million in a first round to fuel its growth in the travel vertical market. The round was led by Rho Ventures, Village Ventures and individual investors.
The investment will help TAN target travel advertising dollars and marketers who are seeking upscale consumers. TAN can deliver 12.5 million monthly unique visitors to advertisers through its partners. Among its 50-plus sites are BBC’s Lonely Planet and Rand McNally.
Habib Kairouz, managing partner at… Continue Reading
On Deck Capital looks to hire CFO, other staff
On Deck Capital, a New York City-based firm that provides financing to companies making $2 million or less in annual revenue, is looking to expand its team by hiring a chief financial officer, a vice president of sales and five other staffers.
According to its website, On Deck offers “business success loans” of up to $100,000. Chief executive Mitch Jacobs says On Deck Capital serves companies who just miss the cut off for normal bank loans…. Continue Reading
Makeover Solutions lets us all find out what we’d look like blond, raises $7mm
Women on the internet are hot.
First we had the women-centric ad network, Glam, raising $200 million and signing a $1 billion deal, then we saw the woman-centric publisher, Sugar Inc, acquiring the woman-centric sites, ShopStyle and Coutorture.
Now, New York’s Makeover Solutions, a site that lets you upload your headshot and adorn it with a variety of hair-styles, accessories, and makeup combinations, has raised $7 million to expand its offering. The impressive technology automatically and accurately… Continue Reading
Outside.in takes $1.5M more in funding
Outside.in, a local news and blogging site, has taken $1.5 million more in funding, bringing its lifetime total to $2.4 million.
Users of the site can write stories, comments, blog posts or reviews of locations in their neighborhood, as well as building up their own personal “neighbor” profile. The site is working on a “major” overhaul, expected to be complete within a week.
Another so-called “hyperlocal” site, Backfence, shut down earlier this year. We recently reported on… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 17, 2007
Featured companies: Bioptigen, Echo Therapeutics, Forest Laboratories, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Microbia, Phreesia, Sontra Medical, TransMedics, Xanthus Pharmaceuticals
[NOTE: This is a catchup briefing, posted on 9/28/07. I've adjusted the item's timestamp to keep the briefings in chronological order. --D.P.H.]
Patient-info digitizer Phreesia takes in $10.3M — Phreesia, a New York company that claims to offer a “100% free” — but ad-sponsored — digital patient check-in application to doctors, raised $10.3 million in a second funding round. Investors included Polaris Ventures… Continue Reading
Pogo Jet files to go public, despite having no revenue
Pogo Jet, a Chicopee, Mass., provider of a private jet charter service, filed to go public and raise $103.5 million.
Remarkably, the company wants to do so despite having no revenue. It won’t even launch its service until 2009, and is still awaiting government approval. Its surprising that it wants the public market to fund its launch.
Here’s the SEC filing.
The IPO will be conducted through an “OpenIPO” process, which allows buyers bid for the shares in… 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 product is called “In-Call Media,” and it inserts ad-supported audio content into the calls of large companies, mainly within customer service calls and the like. The company says its technology… Continue Reading
uPlayMe raises “multi-millions,” joins pile of music services
uPlayMe, the latest in a ever growing pile of companies offering a desktop application to let you connect with people through shared tastes in music, said it has raised a “multi-million” round of funding.
The New York company uses a recommendation engine, looking at the music you’ve played and letting you contact other users who have recently played the same music. It also works for videos, including those watched on YouTube, and other digital content, such… Continue Reading
Getty Images extends empire into music, buys Pump for $42M
Getty Images has acquired Pump Audio, of company that has built up a catalog of 100,000 songs from musicians not signed with traditional labels, for $42 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Getty, of Seattle, Wa., says it is the largest provider of still and moving images. Earlier this year, it bought MediaVast for $200 million, which added more images to Getty’s huge archive. Its acquisition of Pump, based in New York’s Hudson Valley, extends… Continue Reading
PayPerPost, which pays bloggers to write, gets $7M more
PayPerPost, the site that pays bloggers to write content about advertisers, and then gets paid by those advertisers, has raised $7 million more in financing.
This is a controversial site (see our earlier coverage. Bloggers writing rave reviews about products can sway readers into thinking that a product is actually good, but in reality it may be terrible.
In response, PayPerPost later implemented a policy forcing bloggers to disclose whether or not they’ve received money for their… Continue Reading
BioStorage Tech raises $8M for specimen and tissue management
Indianapolis-based BioStorage Technologies, a provider of biological-material storage services, raised $8.3 million in a first round of funding. The company’s statement is here (PDF).
BioStorage claims to be a “worldwide leader” in the outsourced storage and management of all manner of biological materials, ranging from tissue, bone and blood samples to forensics material to manufactured biological products. It initially raised $5 million (PDF) in its first round last August, then added a second tranche in late… Continue Reading
Bar Harbor BioTechnology raises first round
Bar Harbor BioTechnology, a Bar Harbor, Me., developer of DNA and RNA analysis equipment, raised a “multimillion dollar” first round of funding, VentureWire reports. The round was lead by Borealis Ventures, and also involved Village Ventures.
Bar Harbor Bio is a spinout of the Jackson Laboratory, a research institute known for its large collection of genetically engineered mice. The company is developing lab equipment and software for quantitative polymerase chain reaction, or qPCR — a method… Continue Reading
Will Outside.in nail the community Web site? Maybe
Updated with full list of names of angel investors
How do you build the perfect local community Web site — with news, events, comments and more?
If you manage to, it will be a grand slam. It becomes the talk of the town, people spend more time going there, and local advertisers spend money there.
A wave of companies have tried, but failed. But Outside.in, a new Brooklyn, NY start-up is looking very good — as good, if… Continue Reading
ImageSpan, a registry for digital images, raises undisclosed amount
ImageSpan, a Sausalito, Calif., company that lets people license photos and other images from the people who produce them, has raised an undisclosed first round of funding from investors.
The round was led by Alan Patricof and his new venture fund, Greycroft Partners, along with Ron Conway’s Angel Investors LP and Village Ventures, the company said.
The company said it wants to move into other media areas, such as music, digital video and film.
There are several companies… Continue Reading