July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

There is an international flair to Funding Daily today, as companies from across the pond pull in funding, as well as Spanish-language ed tech site. Throw in a startup that delivers chef-created meals to your door and a squirt of lime[ade], and you have a cross-cultural feast of investment delights. Napkins in your lap please.

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Go big or go home: Google Ventures adds $100M to its fund 

Google Ventures, Google’s venture capital arm, has boost its fund size to $300 million from $200 million in a bid to compete with the largest, most established venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. As originally reported by Reuters, the firm will be able to invest in more later-stage deals, typically over $10 million per investor. Google Ventures invests in over 100 companies per year and a typical investment is around $250,000. It currently selects around 15 startups per year for a larger investment of over $10 million. Portfolio companies include DocuSign, Airtime, ClearStory Data and Blue Bottle Coffee. Read more on VentureBeat.

Apache Solr competitor Elasticsearch grabs $10M, ramps up its ‘big data’ offering  

Elasticsearch, the open source project for developers to slice and dice their data, has pulled in $10 million. Since launching in 2009, Amsterdam-based Elasticsearch has become one the most popular open source frameworks on the market. Elasticsearch and the growing crop of well-funded “big data” startups, claim to provide the simplest way to crawl through petabytes of information, store a massive volume of data, and extract the most relevant information.This funding round was led by Benchmark Capital with participation Rod Johnson, cofounder of SpringSource, and from big data focused venture fund, Data Collective. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Honey, I shrunk the web: Netbiscuits raises $27M

Software company Netbiscuits has raised $27 million for its technology that efficiently adapts web applications to smartphones.  The Netbiscuit Mobile Cloud Platform powers, optimizes, and delivers web applications across a range of devices, so the business doesn’t have to. It also offers analytics, hosting and monitoring solutions. Currently, Netbiscuit has a global network made up of 110,000 mobile web apps and sites. It will use this investment to expand further into the US and European markets and work on research and development. Stripes Group led this round, a New York based Venture Capital Firm. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Tareasplus helps Latin American students master math and science

Tareasplus, an online education portal for the Spanish world, has raised $1.8 million. The company offers thousands of video lessons on math and science subjects for kindergarten all the way through early college.The content is produced and developed in Spanish by a network of subject specialists. The site averages 36,000 visitors a day from all over the world, though the main users are in Colombia, Mexico, and Chile. Despite targeting the Latin American market, Tareasplus is based in San Francisco to be at the center of the technology (and venture capital) community. The company has raised $1.8 million in seed funding from Academic Partnerships, an organization that helps public universities extend their reach through technology. Read more on VentureBeat.

Munchery delivers chef-prepared meals to your door

For those of us who are less than talented in the kitchen but still crave home cooked food, Munchery is a dream come true. Now, with $4 million in funding, this startup will take its marketplace across the nation. Munchery essentially gives users access to their own personal chefs. Local chefs can post daily menus online and people can order them for home-delivery. Munchery currently operates in the San Francisco Bay Area. This round was led by E.Ventures along with participation from angel investors. Read more on VentureBeat.

Friendster’s founder pulls in $1.7M for social news startup Nuzzel 

Social news aggregator Nuzzel has secured its first round of funding just a few months after its launch. The site was started by Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams. It pulls together relevant news from your feed and delivers it to you on a dashboard and in daily email. Until today, Abrams had built the site single-handedly, and he did not receive any external investment.

Clearly, he had no trouble pulling in funds for the startup; Abrams currently runs Founders Den, an elite co-working space in San Francisco alongside Zachary Bogue of Data Collective. Bogue was one of over a dozen seed investors in Nuzzel’s first round. The list of investors reads like a veritable Silicon Valley who’s-who. It includes Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Eric Ries of The Lean Startup, George Zachary of Charles River Ventures, Ronny Conway of Andreessen Horowitz, and Jeff Clavier and Stephanie Palmeri of SoftTech VC. Read more on VentureBeat.

Limeade tops off its glass with $5M for enterprise wellness management platform

Limeade is squeezing $5 million into its pitcher today, with an investment from TVC Capital. Limeade offers an enterprise level platform that helps businesses manage and deploy their wellness programs. It strives to build “happy, healthy, high-performance workforces” by providing a place where employees can set goals, track progress, and engage with each other. Clients include Jamba Juice, REI, and various medical centers. In the second half of 2012, the company is projected to add more than 100,000 employee users. This investment will go towards developing the product and scaling the customer service abilities. Limeade will also moving to a larger corporate headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Read the press release. 

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

While looking into Salerno, Italy in conjunction with one of today’s funding stories, I was enchanted with the coastal views of charming beach towns and quaint boats in the harbor. Then I stumbled upon the news that San Francisco Italian restaurant SPQR received a Michelin star, and now I have pasta on the brain. Like an exquisite pasta dish, a startup should stick to the basics, focus on execution, and keep its users and investors coming back. Read more to find out what companies wrapped millions around their spaghetti forks.

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Earn rewards for helping people complete their quests

Another startup launched today, backed by venture funding, to match individuals with needs to people eager to fulfill them. Rewarder is a social marketplace where people can solicit advice, expertise, and resources from the community in exchange for rewards. Its early traction helped Rewarder secure $7 million in its first round of funding. The investment was led by Granite Ventures and Radar Partners and includes participation from angels Ron Conway, David Lee, and Kenny Lerer. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Lerer Ventures launches $36M fund to help fuel NYC startups

Lerer Ventures is adding a $36 million fund to its arsenal, its biggest one so far. This early stage startup firm is based in New York and run by the father-and-son duo, Ken Lerer and Ben Lerer. Earlier this month it helped  invest $2.4 million in Google Now-like service Grokr, and last month it fueled a $3.25 million investment in women’s fashion marketplace JOOR. Other big investments by the firm include Warby Parker, Rap Genius, MakerBot, and Chartbeat. Read more on VentureBeat.

Unlock the goldmine in your closet on Tradesy

Today, Tradesy launched and announced $1.5 million in investment. Tradesy is a marketplace where women can sell their clothes online. Tradesy offers a pricing recommendation engine to help users figure out the right cost, factoring in shopping, packing, and insurance, and also manages returns. It was founded by Tracy DiNunzio as the sister site to her previous e-commerce project, RecycledBride. Investors in Tradesy include Rincon Venture Partners; 500 Startups‘ Dave McClure; Dany Levy, founder of DailyCandy; Daher Capital; Bee Partners; Double M Capital and Launchpad LA. Read more on VentureBeat.  

AirBnB proves administrative laziness is not as exciting as $100 million

AirBnB at long last got around to filing a Form D for its Series B, which initially closed in July 2011. The filing caused quite a stir today in the tech community, with rumors that this $117 million was a completely new round of funding. The realization that AirBnB has not received another massive round of investment, but rather was lackluster with the paperwork, was less exciting. Particularly because of the rumors flying that Peter Thiel wants to invest as much as $150 million in the “social bed and breakfast” company. At least there is an added $5 million (we reported $112 million last year) to make this more slightly newsworthy. Stay tuned for more news about the anticipated Series C. Although we may not see the form for a year after. Read more on VentureBeat.

Italian entrepreneurs tire of la vita dolce, start online advertising network

If I lived on the Amalfi coast, chances are I would not be an entrepreneur (or a journalist). I would probably be too distracted by the stunning scenery, delightful coastal towns, and delicious cuisine to start a company. The same does not apply to the founders of Salerno startup 4w marketplace,  an online advertising network that partners with Italian publishers and media agencies. The team participated in the Digital Magics incubator program and received a little money from there, but has closed a $3.2 million deal from Principia SGR, an Italian venture firm. Read the press release.

Canadian Government invests in heavy lifting building materials 

BuildDirect.com is bolstered by $4 million from BDC Venture Capital. This e-commerce company distributes heavyweight building materials directly from manufacturers to consumers. It uses big data and a technology platform to function as a logistics company. Its predictive analytics engine helps material suppliers operate more efficiently and cuts costs for regional shippers. This brings the total funding to $20.6 million, which is big for a Canadian technology company. BDC Ventures is the venture arm for the government-owned Business Development Bank of Canada.

Venture capital helps the frail and the elderly once they are released from care

Health Essentials received investment from SV Life Sciences and Bessemer Venture Partners to expand its platform. This health care company provides postacute care management services, meaning it helps clinics, nursing facilities, hospices, hospitals and other medical providers manage patients once they are released from a facility. The amount of the round has not been disclosed.  Read the press release.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson

New York City-based Union Square Ventures, investor in Twitter and Zynga, is planning to raise another $150 million to $200 million for a fourth startup fund, reports the Wall Street Journal.

If all goes well with the fund, it would be yet another major win for Union Square, and a reminder of New York’s increasingly prominent role in the startup world. Union Square has also invested in major NYC startups like Foursquare and Tumblr.

Union Square has declined to comment on the report.

There’s little reason to think the firm would have trouble raising more funding. As one investor tells the WSJ, “They just have to call their [investors], and that’s all the marketing that they have to do. … Everyone wants in.”

The firm’s knack for choosing hot properties appears to be going strong: It most recently led a $7.5 million round in the hot social music startup Turntable.fm, which piqued investor interest (not to mention everyone else’s in the tech world) after its May launch.

Unlike some Silicon Valley titans, Union Square has never been tempted by the idea of raising a massive fund, which the WSJ points out can lead to significant management fees. “We will never raise a large fund. We like the small fund model and are completely and totally committed to it,” USV partner Fred Wilson told peHub last year in regards to rumors about its third fund.

The program is run by Dave McClure, a super-angel who has invested in the likes of Mint.com and Twilio. The firm makes small investments in companies and provides them with office space. It also gives the startups in the program access to a network of mentors.

The firm has invested in 175 companies and has a mentor network with more than 100 members. You can see the first batch of startups that presented at the firm’s Demo Day today here. Here is a breakdown of the second batch of companies that presented today:

ChirpMe: ChirpMe is a match-making site for blind dates. Users list on their profile an activity they are interested in doing — like test-driving a sports car — and find other ChirpMe users that want to do the same thing.

ChirpMe has raised $400,000 from seed investors like Zynga founder Mark Pincus and Zynga angel investor Matt Ocko. McClure is also an investor in the startup. The company is looking to raise an additional $500,000.

From.us: From.us is an online site that crowd-sources the gift-giving process. Users go to the site, add a few gifts to a list and invite friends to add other ideas. The recipient then picks the one they want from that list of gifts and everyone chips in for the present.

The company is looking to raise $250,000 in seed funding.

Welcu: Welcu is an online service for managing high-end events like conferences and shows. The site tracks guest participation and planning in real time. The company works with other event-planning and booking sites like Eventbrite.

The company makes around $10,000 in revenue each month and is looking to raise around $600,000. Welcu has already raised $200,000 from advisers and angel investors.

Console.fm: Console.fm finds electronic music on the web. It then populates a playlist that refreshes daily with new music that users can listen to. The company submitted an iPhone application to iTunes for approvatl and it is also working on an application for Google’s mobile operating system, Android.

The site has 40,000 listeners after launching 4 weeks ago. The site has 10,000 users, and 70 percent of those users are active. The company is looking to raise $500,000.

Zerply: Zerply is a professional social networking site similar to LinkedIn. You can search for professionals based on location, expertise and other metrics. The site is designed to less corporate than LinkedIn.

WillCall: WillCall is a mobile application that delivers deals on live shows in a specific area. It’s designed for last-minute plans — such as deciding to go see a show five minutes before the band goes on stage. The app provides users with a short list of “high-quality” events for that same day, and tickets are purchased directly in the app with a few button presses.

Volta: Volta is a call management system for businesses. Volta takes the A/B testing approach for websites, where you try out two different versions and see which one gets the best results, and brings it to phone marketing. Companies can create multiple scripts for their phone calls then mark down which conversions resulted in a sale or whatever else they were looking for, and which ones didn’t.

It’s not much of a surprise that they are showing up in 500 Startups today. McClure said he had a “raging boner” for Volta at the Launch Conference in San Francisco earlier this year. The company is looking to raise $500,000.

Tinfoil Security: Tinfoil Security is a web security provider that crawls websites for vulnerabilities. The company then reports back to the site about the vulnerabilities and gives the site owners a step-by-step tool for fixing how to fix a site vulnerability.

Manpacks: Manpacks is an online site geared toward packs of men’s essentials like underwear, socks, shirts and shaving products. The site bundles together items in packages and sells them at a discount and users can set up recurring purchases — like a quarterly package of socks and boxers.

The company is looking to raise $500,000, and around $375,000 is already committed.

Snapette: Snapette is a mobile application that lets users browse new and nearby pieces of clothing for sale that are popular. Snapette users upload photos of pieces of clothing and other users can vote on the piece of clothing — to weigh in on whether it’s fashionable, naturally.

The company has raised $100,000 and is looking to raise $500,000.

PicCollage: PicCollage is a mobile application for building photo collages. Users select a bunch of photos and the app lets them twist and resize the images to create a photo collage on a mobile device like an iPad. When they’re done making a collage, they can share it on social networking sites or save it for later use.

The app came out around a month ago and iPhone owners have downloaded it around 400,000 times.

CoderBuddy: CoderBuddy is an engine that streamlines building websites and applications. The company publishes those websites and apps to Google’s App Engine.

The company is looking to raise $500,000.

Craft Coffee: Craft Coffee is a monthly subscription for coffee. The company gets three types of coffees from roasters and ships them to Craft Coffee members each month. The package comes with tasting notes and more information about the kind of coffee in the package.

The company has raised around $20,000. The company is looking to raise $300,000, with $200,000 of that already committed.

Loku: Loku is a location-based service that maps out any event that has happened in a given city in the past 24 hours. That includes news events and crime, as well as lighter fare such as daily deals. You can zoom into specific neighborhoods within a city. The map also shows blog posts and reviews on restaurant sites like Yelp.

LaunchRock: LaunchRock creates a landing page for companies that are preparing to launch a whole new site or  new content. The landing page includes a number of ways to share the site through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The company has raised $400,000 to date and is looking to raise $1 million in its seed round, $125,000 of which is already committed.