Veoh is a video sharing website based in San Diego, Calif.  Michael Eisner, former Disney chairman is on the Board of Veoh.  Eisner was one of the investors in Veoh’s $12.5 million in second round funding in April 2006.  Eisner also participated in the $25 million Series C round of funding in August 2007 as well.  And today Veoh raised $30 million in funding from Intel Capital, Adobe Systems, Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs, The Tornate Company, Time Warner, and several other investors.

Veoh has two viewing options for their site.  The first option is to allow users to stream videos from the web, but they provide full episodes of television shows giving them the leg-up on YouTube.  The second option is to watch high quality videos using VeohTV through p2p technology.  Like YouTube, Veoh compresses video using Adobe Flash.

Veoh claims that they receive 28 million unique visitors who spend 100 minutes per month on their site on average.  Veoh isn’t that far behind DailyMotion and Metacafe in terms of traffic.

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: Veoh Raises Another $30 Million From Intel Capital, Adobe, and Gordon Crawford by Erick Schonfeld

Demand Media Inc. is a Santa Monica, Calif. based company that was founded by Richard Rosenblatt. Roseblatt was the former President of Intermix Media, parent company of MySpace. News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media became the part company of MySpace when they acquired Intermix.

The company has raised a 3rd round of funding at $100 million by investment banking company, Goldman-Sachs. The previous investors include 3i Group, Generation Partners, Oak Investment Partners, and Spectrum Equity Partners [Source: alarm:clock]. Demand Media has raised a total of $320 million as of now.

So what does Demand Media actually do?

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iCrossing is a digital marketing company founded in 1998. The company has raised $62 million in a fifth round of investment that brings their total round of funding to $110 million. The $62 million investment was received from Goldman-Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) and several other investors.

“iCrossing is at the forefront of developing search and social media strategies that engage – not alienate – users,” stated Richard Rosenblatt, the chairman of iCrossing. “The market is responding and iCrossing has seized a leadership position in the digital space. With CEO Jeff Herzog’s vision for the future, there are sure to be even bigger things to come^.”

What does iCrossing actually do? An example of their work includes developing a solution to make PR Newswire mobile. PR Newswire is a press release website. Essentially, this would benefit journalists all over the world. Other major clients include Coca-Cola, Colgate, GM, Office Depot, and Travelocity.

Investors in iCrossing include:
1.) Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS): Goldman Sachs is a global investment and securities firm based in New York. Goldman Sachs focuses on investment banking, asset management, and trading and principal investments. Some of Goldman Sachs’ case studies are available at: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/insight/case_studies/.
2.) Oak Investment Partners: is a venture capital firm with $8.4 billion in committed capital. Some of the consumer Internet investments that Oak participated in includes aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft for $6 billion), Connexus Corporation, Fastclick, Inc. (acquired by ValueClick), and Shop.com
3.) RRE Ventures: RRE is a venture capital firm that manages $850 million in assets. Some of the companies that RRE has invested in includes WeddingChannel.com, Stockback (acquired by Vesdia), SmarterKids.com, Pinnacor (acquired by MarketWatch), and eMachines.
4.) StarVest Partners L.P.: is a private equity company that has $150 million in assets. Companies that StarVest invested in include Tibersoft Corporation, Newgistics Inc., NetSuite Inc., Connected Corporation (acquired by Iron Mountain Inc.), and Insurance.com

References:
[1] iCrossing press release: Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners Lead Investment in Digital Marketing Leader iCrossing

For further details, refer to iCrossing’s website: www.icrossing.com

TheMarkets.com is a website that reports financial resources and estimations to institutional investors.  Today the company announced that it has “completed a $30 million Series S Rights Offering to its existing broker-owners^[1].”

“This investment is a tangible validation of our business model to provide value-added content and workflow solutions to the buy-side,” stated David Eisner, the CEO and President of TheMarkets.com. “Together with our already strong cash flow and balance sheet, this round of financing will propel our growth in the coming years. The funding will enable us to pursue strategic investments and acquisitions, as we continue to expand globally by leveraging our existing distribution platform and our unique relationships with the sell-side to introduce new products and services requested by our clients.”

Who owns TheMarkets.com?  The company was formed in 2000 by eleven of the top investment banks: Banc of America Securities, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank.  The site also offers information regarding company financial filings and pending equity deals straight from the source.  TheMarkets.com is based in New York and also has offices in London.

TheMarkets.com serves over 1500 firms in 43 countries.  “TheMarkets.com has a proven management team and a sound business model,” stated Mark Steinert, a new Board Member of and also a Global Head of Research at UBS. “We view the Company as an ideal vehicle through which to develop new tools for the buy-side that uniquely leverage our services, and we were delighted to be a significant investor in the round.”

[1] TheMarkets.com Press release: TheMarkets.com Closes $30 Million to Fund Strategic Growth Plans

References:
[2] PaidContent: Online Financial Researcher TheMarkets.com Closes $30 Million Investment

[Edit - Jingle has raised a total of $61.4 million, not $56.4 million. I missed a $5 million funding round they had in December.]

Jingle Networks has received a $30 million investment led by Goldman Sachs and Hearst Corporation. Jingle operates FREE411.COM, a service that provides free ad-supported telephone directory assistance.

This is the company’s fourth funding round. Jingle raised $400,000 when they started out, $5 million in December, and $26 million in April. So to date, Jingle has raised $61.4 million.

I would guess that investors own roughly 1/3 of Jingle. Therefore, Jingle’s valuation is possibly around $184 million. Not bad for such a young company.

FREE411 works like any other directory assistance service. You call 1-800-FREE-411 and are answered by an automated service that asks you a few questions about the business number you are looking for. And while you wait for the number, sponsored ads related to your listing are played. If the automated service is unable to help you, live operators are also available.

I think Jingle has a great thing going for it. Directory assistance services cost a lot. Sprint charged me something like $3.00 to use their assistance service last week which was ridiculous! I don’t mind having to listen to a few ads to save $3.00.

It’s projected that Americans use directory assistance services 6 billion times a year. Therefore, FREE411.COM has huge potential for growth. According to Jingle, its service handled 13 million calls in September. That’s a sizeable number. If Jingle keeps growing and capturing segments of the traditional directory assistance market, I can easily see it become a billion dollar company.

Mountain View, CA based eHealth Inc. had spent $50 million in development costs to form an application that sells health insurance online. This week eHealth Inc. is hoping to raise $47.1 million through its upcoming IPO. The basis of eHealth Inc.’s business is to solve the everday problem of choosing the right medical coverage. As of right now, most individuals, families, and small-to-mid sized businesses go through agents that take in excessive commission fees to help them choose medical insurance.

Thus far, eHealth Inc. had sold health insurance to over 325,000 customers through its website. eHealth Inc. has over 5,000 health insurance products and 150 insurance companies in its database including services provided by Aetna and UnitedHealth. The market eHealth is aiming to tap includes the 17 million Americans that buy their own medical insurance and opposing plans selected by their employers. This is an estimated $658 billion market.

To help serve the 46 million Americans that are not health insured, eHealth Inc. provides rate quoting, plan comparisons, and provides communication services between insurers and potential customers. Through such services, eHealth enables uninsured consumers to discover affordable rates.

To make money, eHealth Inc. is acting essentially as a broker and takes commission fees from the insurance providers. In 2001, eHealth’s revenues were $9.3 million compared to 2005’s $41.8 million, an increase by nearly 450% in 4 years.

In the IPO, eHealth Inc. is planning on selling 5 million shares @ $10-$12 per share. eHealth Inc.’s symbol will be traded under the stock symbol “EHTH” through NASDAQ. At that current share, the estimated market cap is at $271 million. According to the NASDAQ website, eHealth is expected to go public on October 12.

Acme Packet Inc. is a Burlington, MA company that provides internet security for numerous clients that output video, VoIP, and other multimedia services. Acme Packet has a strong prescence all over the world and has partnerships with some of the biggest names in telecommunication services such as D-Link, Cisco, and NEC. Microsoft is also an Acme Packet partner. Although Cisco Systems Inc. is a partner, they are also competition for network equipment against Acme.

According to Acme Packet’s press releases, Acme Packet filed a registration statement with the SEC proposing an IPO on June 2, 2006, but is planning to go public this week. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) is acting as the book-runner and Credit Suisse Group’s Securities (VTX: CSGN) division is acting as the joint lead manager and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. is co-managing the IPO. ThinkEquity Partners LLC are also serving as underwriters.

Acme is planning to sell 8 million shares with a price opening of between $6.50 and $7.50 per share. Acme’s stock symbol will be “AKPT” through NASDAQ. Acme is hoping to raise $60 million. Between January and June of this year, Acme Packet has reported revenues of $38.1 million which is up from $16.7 million from the year before in the same period.