Pulse has raised $9 million in funding as they have just hit 4 million users. Pulse is a social and visual news reader company that has apps available on the iPad, iPhone, and Android.

TagMan is a company that lets marketers and advertising company track online ad campaigns. TagMan has raised $2.25 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners, iNovia Capital, and other undisclosed angel investors. TagMan uses tags/pixels and simple pieces of JavaScript to track the performance of online ad campaigns. Some of TagMan’s clients include Subaru and Virgin.

Alphonso Labs is a Palo Alto based company that created an application called Pulse. Alphonso raised $1 million in seed funding from Redpoint Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Mayfield Fund, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Ad.ly is known for being a Twitter advertising company. Ad.ly has raised $5 million in funding from GRP Partners, Greycroft Partners, and Matt Coffin. Arnie Gullov-Singh has also been hired as the new CEO of the company. Arnie was previously the EVP of product, technology, and operations at the Fox Audience Network. [TechCrunch]

Venture capital company Greycroft Partners has raised $130.7 million for a digital media fund called Greycroft II. Greycroft will invest between $500K and $5 million into firms through the new fund. Greycroft has invested in companies such as blog paidContent, Crowdfusion, and Sometrics. [soCalTech]

Buddy Media is a social media company that runs campaigns for major brands. They can handle brand management, advertising, and relationships with PR agencies with social marketing tools. Some of their clients include Microsoft, Anheuser Busch, FedEx, and Time Inc.

Buddy Media has just raised $2 million in funding from SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners, Ron Conway, and Bay Partners. Some of Buddy Media’s newest tools include the abilities to create and track Facebook Fan pages to drive a campaign. There is also a Twitter Management System. [TechCrunch]

Babble is an online “magazine and community for a new generation of parents.”  Somehow using that as a tag line has been enough to gather $1 million in funding and attack tons of traffic.

Greycroft Partners are the VC firm behind the $1 million in funding which adds to the other $2 million made from Village Ventures.  The total $3 million is paret of the same round at the same valuation.

Babble is a spin-off from Nerve Media, a sex and dating community website.  Babble is targetted towards a commnity of younger parents that live in major cities.  Competitors include Urbanbaby.com and Cookie Magazine.  Babble is also getting a newly appointed CEO by the name of Sean Mills.  Mills is the former president of The Onion and will be replacing Babble founder Rufus Griscom.

[via TechCrunch]

High school social network, Takkle.com took a niche and kept on strengthening upon it. Takkle lined up partnerships with major corporations that revolve around the purpose of their niche: showcase high school athletic abilities. Even Sports Illustrated, NYCIF, Greycroft, WMG Investments, IJ Smith Enterprises invested in Takkle previously.

In this round, Liberty Associated Partners, WMG Investments, and Greycroft participated.  Takkle allows athletes and coaches to upload photos/videos/blogs/profiles on the social network.  High school athlete statistics can also be added to profiles.

Takkle athletes can also create “Takkle Sheets.”  Takkle Sheets are like a sports resume that athletes can use to  promote themselves to be qualified for professional and college leagues.  Takkle is based in New York.