Mysterious search engine Blekko finds $2.5M
Blekko, a stealthy San Francisco company that is sounding more and more like a search engine, has tacked $2.5 million onto its third round of funding, which now totals $14 million, according to Dow Jones VentureWire. The recent extension came from US Venture Partners and CMEA Capital, but it was previously backed by SoftTech Venture Capital, Western Technology Investment, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, famed angel investor Ron Conway, and former Googlers Jeremy Wenokur and Danid… Continue Reading
New VC Marc Andreessen joins HP board
Entrepreneur and angel investor Marc Andreessen, who recently became a fully-fledged venture capitalist with the launch of his firm Andreessen Horowitz, has joined the board of directors at computer maker Hewlett Packard.
HP likes to stay connected with the venture and startup communities, so Andreessen isn’t the first venture capitalist on its board. Tom Perkins, co-founder of top venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, famously left the board in 2006 after learning that HP had… Continue Reading
First Andreessen Horowitz investment, Apptio, raises $14M
Andreessen Horowitz, the much-hyped $300 million fund founded by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and his Opsware co-founder Ben Horowitz, has chosen its inaugural investment: Apptio, maker of software that makes information technology management more transparent and cost-efficient. It co-led the company’s $14 million second-round of funding with Shasta Ventures.
The Bellevue, Wash. company may not be the sexiest selection, but it makes sense based on its background. Apptio’s chief executive, Sunny Gupta, is a longtime friend… Continue Reading
Andreessen gets back into browsers with RockMelt?
Netscape founder turned investor Marc Andreessen seems to be returning to his browser roots with his newly christened venture fund. According to ReadWriteWeb, he’s backing a stealth Facebook browser called RockMelt.
Andreessen’s not new to the social networking scene either. He previously helped found build-your-own-social-network company Ning.
RockMelt’s engineering team is reportedly from Opsware (a software company Andreessen sold to HP for $1.6 billion in 2007) and also has Robert John Churchill, the principal engineer for Netscape Navigator,… Continue Reading
Report: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz raise $300M venture fund
Well-known angel investing partners Marc Andreessen (pictured) and Ben Horowitz have finished raising money for what has become a $300 million venture fund, according to an article in BoomTown that cites “numerous sources close to the situation.”
Andreessen, who co-founded Netscape and build-your-own-social-network startup Ning, first announced the fund in an interview on the Charlie Rose Show. At the time, he didn’t reveal the total size of the fund, but Andreessen said the goal is to… Continue Reading
ExtraHop raises $5.1M to manage your network
ExtraHop, a company that makes devices for application and network management, has raised $5.1 million in a first round of venture funding from Madrona Venture Partners, as well as well-known angel investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
The Seattle company describes itself as “Google Earth for your network,” meaning that it provides IT managers and application delivery teams with a high-level view of what’s happening in their networks — allowing them to drill down into the… Continue Reading
Metaplace raises more funding to be the MySpace of virtual worlds
Metaplace, a company that will allow anybody to build their own virtual world and access it through through an ordinary web browser, has taken $6.7 million in funding as it nears a public release.
There hasn’t been much hype around Metaplace yet, probably because of the failure of Second Life, There.com and other virtual world companies to take the real world by storm. However, Metaplace looks like one of the more promising companies in a new… Continue Reading
Facebook confirms Andreessen as its newest board member
Marc Andreessen, early web technology pioneer and veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has officially joined Facebook’s board of directors, according to a rather interesting press release just put out by the company.
Andreessen, as many of our readers already know, is currently the co-founder of a create-your-own social network service called Ning. When the Andreessen-Facebook board rumor first came out nearly two months ago, we and many others wondered how that conflict would be managed. Here are… Continue Reading
Iminlikewithyou raises $1.5M for social gaming site
Iminlikewithyou, a startup that began as something close to a dating site and has become closer to a casual game portal and social network over time, has raised a $1.5 million second round tor expansion.
The New York-based company only features its own games on the site, and is based entirely in Flash. Co-founder Charles Forman has said that he based many of his ideas off South Korean sites.
We’ve written more about the company as part… Continue Reading
Stealth search company Blekko gets $3M
Blekko, a stealth search company started by Topix co-founder Rich Skrenta, has raised $3 million in a second round of funding, according to TechCrunch.
Little is known about the company, and right now its website contains nothing more than a photo of, um, a puppet (see above). But apparently Netscape and Ning co-founder Marc Andreessen, SoftTech VC and Western Technology Investment all think Skrenta (famous for creating the first computer virus) has a good idea, as… Continue Reading
Rumor: Marc Andreessen may be about to join Facebook’s board of directors
Netscape, Opsware and Ning founder Marc Andreessen may soon join Facebook’s board of directors. He’s already verbally accepted the position, Kara Swisher hears.
One obvious question here — and I have an email out to Andreessen for comment — is that Ning’s do-it-yourself social network creator tool is based on the opposite premise from Facebook. Otherwise, as Swisher points out, the two are a nice fit.
Vision-wise, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook is trying to get you, your… Continue Reading
SocialMedia raises $3.5M to sell ads across social networks
SocialMedia, a company that lets small Facebook applications get exposure by bidding on ad links within Facebook popular applications, has just raised $3.5 million in financing.
Using the marketplace offered by SocialMedia, a Mill Valley, Calif., company, less popular Facebook applications bid to get ads placed on the pages of more popular Facebook application — thus, increasing their traffic. Advertising one application within another is an increasingly important way of getting Facebook users to try out… Continue Reading
Twitter, popular messaging service, gets cash
[Update 12/11: Twitter filed regulatory papers saying it had raised $4.8 million in a second round of funding, and that it possibly raise a total of $5.4 million]
Confirming what we first reported earlier this week, the fast-growing Twitter messaging service has raised a new round of funding.
The San Francisco company, which has become popular among people wanting to update online what they are doing at any given point of time, has announced the lead investor… Continue Reading
Opsware sells to HP for $1.6 billion, in happy ending
Opsware, a provider of software that automates processes in corporate data centers — such as setting up and managing complex server configurations — has been purchased by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in cash.
This is a happy ending for a company that went through a very long, rocky journey. Originally co-founded by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, it garnered considerable hype at launch, went public, but then struggled badly (picture from Netscape era). It has traveled from… Continue Reading
Roundup: Facebook IPO talk, the video firehose, Ning’s ridiculous valuation & more
Here’s the latest action (updated):
Airborne mash-up: lawn chair travels 193 miles –Oregon resident Kent Couch tried to fly to Idaho last weekend — in an apparatus made out of his lawn chair carried by 105 large helium balloons. He carried instruments to measure altitude and speed, and also a parachute. He didn’t make it, though. (Image courtesy of AP)
More adult supervision at Facebook — Chamath Palihapitiya, a former AOL executive turned venture capital investor at the… Continue Reading
Roundup: Andreessen’s tips, Revver’s shakeup, Xing’s move, Yigg.de and much more
Here’s the (updated) latest action:
Marc Andreessen getting taste of what it’s like to be a blogger – The Netscape co-founder launched a blog last week. The NYT ran a story about one of his earliest posts. Then he did a good piece about how to hire. And now all the attention has him racing out more posts, including a three part series on The truth about venture capitalists, all very good reads (here, here and… Continue Reading
CastTV raises $3.1M to launch better video search
Corrected: Motwani is merely an advisor
San Francisco’s CastTV, a site that says it can search video better than leading players like Yahoo and Google by turning up Javascript-hidden files and other information, has raised $3.1 million from well-known venture capitalists.
Video search is a huge potential market: Lucrative advertising can be displayed by the search results. Predictably, a gaggle of players are targeting this area. CastTV has yet to launch — it will do so next… Continue Reading
Cisco’s love affair for Web 2.0 continues, buys Tribe assets
(Updated with comment from Cisco)
Cisco Systems, the giant supplier of Internet equipment which is falling hard consumer Internet, has bought the assets of Tribe.net, an early social networking player.
The New York Times reported the story first here.
Cisco’s acquisition of the small San Francisco-based Tribe’s technology is the third purchase within a month — and is significant because it reveals a great ambition by the giant router company to move into new areas of the Internet… Continue Reading
Your social network at Ning, join the thousands
Ning, the Palo Alto start-up, has relaunched to let you build your own full-fledged social network.
Ning announced the launch three days ago, and since then, users have created 5,000 new networks, chief executive Gina Bianchini tells us — though is difficult to know how many of these accounts are like the ones we often create (to tinker with, only to never go back again). Ning now reports 35,664 networks, up from 5,000 a year ago…. 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