ScanScout nabs $5.1M for contextual video advertising
ScanScout, an online advertising network that places ads in contextually relevant video content, just brought in $5.1 million of an anticipated $8.1 million third round of financing, according to PE Hub. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the company’s backers include General Catalyst Partners, Time Warner, First Round Capital and famed Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway.
ScanScout last raised funding in May 2007, bringing in $7 million. Created by two MIT graduates, it was initially seeded in 2005… Continue Reading
VentureBeat raises $320,000 seed round, traffic growing
updated
VentureBeat has just raised a seed round, and I wanted to be the first one to let you know. The news is beginning to leak after we filed a regulatory document.
VentureBeat has grown steadily since launching more than a year ago. We’ve been hiring writers and we have record traffic. I’ve bootstrapped the company thus far, and while it’s been rewarding, there’s just so much more we’d like to do. We’ve been pretty much in… Continue Reading
Imo.im turns Facebook friends into IM friends. Will social networks take over IM?
Imo.im, an instant message services aggregator, has just launched a Facebook application that turns your Facebook friends into IM friends. In other words, you can now IM with your Facebook friends directly through Imo.im without having to use AIM, GTalk, or other standard IM services.
There could be a bigger trend here. I wonder if services that pair social network data with IM will eventually render AIM and other IM services obsolete. More on that in… Continue Reading
Buxfer is giving Mint, other personal finance sites, a run for their money
A number of well-executed personal finance management web startups have been in the spotlight in recent months, including Mint — which won the Techcrunch 40 startup competition — Wesabe and Geezeo. Buxfer, however, has been flying under the radar, and it shouldn’t be.
Beyond a clean interface for tracking your purchases, payments and trends in your spending habits (see screenshot, below), the company has been developing some impressive new features. One is a use of Google… Continue Reading
Imo.Im, offering easy video chat through IM
Ex-Googlers are bringing Google-y best practices with them to Silicon Valley startups. Latest example: Imo.im, a new company started by some former Google employees showcases how to launch early, then iterate often in a product launch with one — or in this case, two — killer features.
Until last Friday, the Palo Alto, Calif., company has offered an instant-messager aggregator, similar to sites like Meebo or eBuddy. It has added a way to easily start chatting… Continue Reading
Mogad gets half a million to build a better recommendation site
Mogad is the latest startup building a peer-recommendation web service, similar to Facebook’s “news feed” feature.
Unlike Facebook’s closed system, however, Mogad wants to be a “news feed” for the whole web, that can give you recommendations from anything they do. For example, if you’re purchasing a book, Mogad will show you what books your friends are most interested in.
This field is a daunting one, because it’s filled with players. Plaxo’s social network, Pulse, Forbes’ newly-purchased… Continue Reading