Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Charles River Ventures

People Search Engine Ark Raises $4.2 Million In Seed Round

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:55:34 +0000

Ark is a people search engine launched at Y Combinator Demo Day that has raised $4.2 million in a seed round of funding. Ark crawls Facebook, RenRen, LinkedIn, and Twitter to find out as much data as possible. The founders at Ark got the idea for the startup when they found out that 30% of searches are for people.

In March 2012, Ark indexed over 1 billion people from their social networking data. About 250,000 people have signed up for beta invites.

The $4.2 million seed round is the largest that any Y Combinator has received. Investors in this round include Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures, Greylock Partners, Intel Capital, SV Angel, Atlas Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Expansion Venture Capital, and Felicis Ventures. Angel investors from Facebook, Salesforce.com, Qualcomm, and Microsoft also participated in this round.

Ark currently has 20 people on staff and they plan to hire more for their mobile and search engineering teams. Ark started in summer 2011 and their search engine was developed during the Y Combinator Winter Program.

Millennial Media’s Shares Surge 97% In First Trade Of $25

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:54:44 +0000

Millennial Media is a mobile ad network that has debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MM.” The shares popped 97% in the first trade of $25. Millennial Media’s valuation jumped to almost $2 billion and the company priced their IPO at $13 per share. Trading reached as high as $27.90 in early trading.

Millennial Media filed their original S-1 in early January and they raised over $130 million in the offering, which is up from $75 million. Millennial is one of the last largest remaining independent mobile ad networks, which currently serves ads to 200 million unique users. Over 30,000 apps use Millennial for their ads, which are served to 200 million unique users worldwide.

Millennial Media’s revenue increased 195% from $16.2 to $47.8 million. The company took a net loss of $7.6 million and $7.1 million between 2009 and 2010. Between 2010 and 2011, revenue increased 117% from $47.8 million to $103.7 million. In 2011, the company saw a net loss of $287,000.

Paul Palmieri founded Millennial Media and they raised $65 million in venture funding from Charles River Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, and several others.

“Today is an exciting day for our company, and also a significant milestone in the maturation of the mobile advertising industry. We have spent the last six plus years helping create what’s now a multi-billion dollar mobile application advertising market and we look forward to continuing to drive growth and innovation in the space,” stated Palmieri.

AOL Acquires Photo-Sharing App Hipster

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:05:13 +0000

AOL has acquired Hipster and their five-person team will be working at the company’s mobile team in Palo Alto, California. They will be reporting to Sol Lipman. Hipster CEO Doug Ludlow will be the director of mobile product management. Hipster will not be shut down.

“The culture that Sol, David, and the team have created over at the AOL Mobile Team in Palo Alto is pretty amazing – it’s a group of people we can’t wait to starting building cool stuff with,” stated Ludlow. “We’re also thrilled that Hipster is not only going to stay open as a product, but we’ll now be able to improve it / build even faster.”

Hipster raised $1 million in funding from these investors:
Mitch Kapor
Max Ventilla
David Tisch
Don Dodge
Paige Craig
Lightbank
Google Ventures
Charles River Ventures
Lerer Ventures
Ludlow Ventures
500 Startups
David G. Cohen

Yammer Raises $85 Million, Leading To Total Of $142 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:43:14 +0000

Yammer, the service that is known as the Twitter-for-enterprise, has raised $85 million in funding, which brings them to a total of $142 million. This is Yammer’s fifth round of funding. DFJ Growth led the investment. New investors Meritech Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Capricorn Investment Group joined in this round. The existing investors that also participated include Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund. Randy Glein of DFJ Growth will be joining Yammer’s board of directors.

Yammer saw their sales triple in the last year as demand for upgrades in features were increased. Their user base jumped to more than 4 million users. Due to the growth, plenty of venture capitalists wanted to get their piece of the Yammer pie. Yammer had already raised a new round of funding last year from investors such as U.S. Venture Partners and Social+Capital Partnership. Yammer started raising their new round in January and they had term sheets from investors within 2 weeks.

Yammer CEO David Sacks said that the company is not in a rush for an IPO. They plan on using the funding to add employees. They plan on having about 500 employees by the end of the year. Yammer plans on launching a multimedia ad campaign starting Thursday.

[Source: WSJ]

QR Code Company Scan Raises $1.7 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:37:14 +0000

Scan is a QR code application company that has raised over $1.7 million in funding from Menlo Ventures, Google Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Start Fund, Social + Capital Partnership, Transmedia Capital, Ludlow Ventures, and angel investors Ariel Poler, Naval Ravikant, Jim Pallotta, and Troy Carter. Scan is based in Provo, Utah.

Scan co-founder Garrett Gee finds that QR codes are distasteful. However he believes that QR codes could serve as a hopeful addendum to movie posters and conference badges to be more user-friendly.

The Scan web interface allows anyone to generate QR codes without prior development experience. Using Scan.me, businesses and individuals can create QR codes that represent their online presence. Scan’s closest competitor is believed to be QR code generator Paperlinks.

Online Health Record Website MotherKnows Raises $1.7 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:55:47 +0000

MotherKnows is an online health record service website that has raised $1.7 million in a seed round of funding. The round was led by First Round Capital. Giza Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Band of Angels, Maneesh Arora, and several other angel investors participated in this round. MotherKnows plans on using the funding for product development.

Enterprise Mobile Company DoubleDutch Raises $1.2 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:25:34 +0000

DoubleDutch is an enterprise mobile start-up company that has raised $1.2 million in funding. The lead investor is Lightbank, a venture capital firm run by Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. Charles River Ventures, Launch Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Venture51, Zig Capital, and other angel investors also participated in this round.

DoubleDutch helps companies build their own geolocation service similar to Foursquare. It allows people to connect customers, employees, and communities to each other. DoubleDutch can create applications that have location-based networking capabilities, employee mapping, etc. These maps can be customized with logos, splash screens, etc. They have a functional platform for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. Some of their customers include Cisco, HP, Adobe, and TED.

[TechCrunch]

Web Advertising Company CampusLIVE Raises $3.1 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:42:11 +0000

CampusLIVE is a web advertising company that is based in Boston, Massachusetts. CampusLIVE raised $3.1 million in funding from Highland Capital Partners, Charles River Ventures, and other angel investors. Last year CampusLIVE raised $340,000 in funding. [Xconomy]

Massive Health Raises $2.25 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:49:36 +0000

Massive Health has announced that they have raised $2.25 million in a seed round of funding from Felicis VC, Greylock Discovery Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Collaborative Fund. Massive Health intends on using crowdsourcing, game mechanics, and social networking to help people stay healthy. Massive Health is co-founded by Aza Raskin and Sutha Kamal.

Millenial Media Raises $27.5 Million From Bessemer, Columbia, Charles River, and NEA

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:22:22 +0000

Millenial Media is a mobile ad network company based in the U.S. that has raised $27.5 million. Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) all participated in this round of funding. Millenial Media has raised a total of $65 million in funding thus far. Millenial Media raised this round of funding because the company wants to stay independent and not get acquired. They have plans to expand internationally too. [AllThingsD]