Amobee Media Systems, a mobile advertising company has raised $22 million.  The $22 million round was led by Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO).  Amobee raised a total of $52 million thus far.  Previous investors in Amobee includes Telefonica, Accel Partners, Vodafone, Sequoia Capital, and Globespan.

Amobee’s goal is to help fund telecommunication companies through advertising.  Vodafone Spain is using Amobee to insert advertisements into Vodafone’s mobile site. 

“We have built the first and only telco- grade ad-serving solution specifically designed to address the unique needs and requirements of the mobile operator across multiple channels and services,” states Amobee’s Operators page.

Amobee was founded in 2005 and launched in Feb. 2006.  Amobee’s headquarters are in Redwood City, Calif. and has research and development based in Herzliya, Israel.  Amobee is lead by CEO Zohar Levkovitz.

Related Links:
1. Amobee.com
2. alarm:clock

Rackspace is a web hosting company based in San Antonio, Texas.  Rackspace is getting ready to have an initial public offer on the NYSE with stock ticket symbol, RAX.  Rackspace is opening with 15 million shares at $12.50 per share.  Through the IPO, Rackspace will raise about $187.5 million.  Goldman-Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Merrill Lynch are book running the IPO.

Norwest Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital own 27.8% of Rackspace combined.  Norwest owns 11.6% and Sequoia owns 16.2%.  Rackspace wanted to raise $276 million through the IPO, but had to target for a lower price because of the economic conditions.

Rackspace was co-founded by Pat Condon, Dirk Elmendorf, and (Update: see comment #1) Richard Yoo.  Some of Rackspace’s partners include Microsoft, Redhat, Dell, Cisco, HP, AMD, VMware, and PCI.

Related Links:
1. Rackspace.com
2. GigaOM

“Consumers are in love with TokBox, and use it to keep in touch with friends and family around the globe,” stated Nick Triantos, CEO of TokBox. “We’re proud of the service we’ve created and how easy it is for anyone to use TokBox. We are grateful that a world-class venture firm like Bain Capital Ventures also sees our potential, and are thrilled to have them join Sequoia Capital as investors in TokBox.”

TokBox is a “live video calling” service.  TokBox and Skype have similar functionality, except TokBox can be embedded on social network profiles, blogs, and personal websites.  TokBox has a “Push to Talk” button that appears on the social network applications.

TokBox has raised $10 million in Series B from Bain Capital and Sequoia Capital.  TokBox’s Series A was $4 million, bringing the video chat service’s total funding to $14 million.  Scott Friend (pictured above), Venture Partner at Bain Capital will join TokBox’s Board of Directors through this round of funding. 

“TokBox has an impressive and very loyal and energetic user base,” stated Friend. “The company is executing well and its service offers consumers a variety of great features that strongly differentiate TokBox from competitors. We are excited to be investing with our partners at Seqouia in a company we believe has the potential to be the next ‘big thing’ in web communication.”

TokBox is run by CEO Nick Triantos, a former Partner at Quantum Technology Partners.  Youniversity Ventures, an early-stage ventural capital firm started by Jawed Karim (YouTube co-founder), Kevin Hartz (early PayPal and Friendster investor), and Keith Rabois (former EVP at PayPal) is also an investor in TokBox.  Roelof Botha, a VC for Sequoia is also on the board of directors for TokBox.  TokBox was founded by Ron Hose.

“Tokbox is uniquely positioned as a leader in the burgeoning consumer video communications market,” stated Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital. “Their ultra-simple user interface sets a new bar for ease-of-use for consumers to hold video calls with their friends and family around the world. We’re very happy with their growth to date, which is why we are enthusiastic to participate in their Series B investment.”

The beauty of TokBox is that no download is needed to chat.  It is 100% free and it has solid privacy controls.  TokBox is based in San Francisco, Calif.

Related Links:
1. TokBox
2. VentureBeat
3. TechCrunch 
4. TokBox Press Release

PopularMedia is a company that helps clients make content go viral.  It is a similar concept as ACS SEO.  However PopularMedia is a fully-funded social media company.  To date, PopularMedia has raised over $12 million in funding across three rounds. 

The latest round of funding was $8 million.  VentureBeat reported that the funding was provided by DAG Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Steamboat Ventures.  PopularMedia is run by CEO Jim Calhoun. 

PopularMedia also released a new product called SocialNotes.  SocialNotes is a widget that can be placed on blogs to get feedback.  SocialNotes looks like a floating sticky note.  The datasheet is available here.

Related Links:
1. PopularMedia.com

Mevio, a video website that was founded by Ron Bloom and Adam Curry started the company originally to podcast.  About 4 years later, the founders decided to rename their former company, Podshow to Mevio.  Mevio hosts original videos and will allow others to syndicate their content.

This idea impressed Crosslink Capital, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DAG Ventures, and Sherpalo Ventures because these companies gave Mevio $15 million in Series C.  All of these VC firms were previous investors as well.  To date, Mevio has raised about $38 million. 

Some of Mevio’s clients include Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, and Hewlett Packard.  Mevio has over 1 million hours of video content.  Mevio also self-proclaims themselves as a leading site to discover new artists and free use licensing for original music. 

Related Links:
Mevio

Information Source:
Silicon Alley Insider 

“If LinkedIn is able to achieve its goals and objectives in the coming years, this valuation of a billion dollars will be looked upon as very cheap,” stated Mark Kvamme, Sequoia Capital partner/LinkedIn Board of Director.

LinkedIn is making some Facebook-like moves.  LinkedIn has a fraction of the features of many other social networks, but apparently the “professional” card works.  Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners have combined their investments and gave LinkedIn a $53 million round of funding.  This gives LinkedIn a valuation at $1 billion.

What does the investors get in return?  Between the 5 companies, they received a combined 5% equity in LinkedIn.  Some of the investors have joined LinkedIn’s Board ofDirectors as well.  Earlier this year, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook for 1.6% equity.  Other valuations in LinkedIn’s sector include Ning at $500 million, Facebook at $15 billion, RockYou at $200-$300 million, and MySpace acquired for $580 million.

LinkedIn has about 23 million users in 150 countries.  LinkedIn is aiming for $100 million in revenue this year.  LinkedIn has raised $80 million in funding so far.  Although analysts are guessing News Corp. or Microsoft may make a bid for LinkedIn, but Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn stated that he preferred to remain independent.

Information Source:
[1] AP via Wired]

RockYou announced today that they have raised $35 million Series C in funding.  The firms that invested in RockYou includes DCM, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, and Sequoia.  RockYou! created some of the more viral applications on Facebook including Vampires, Superwall, and Likeness.  RockYou! also created marketing campaigns for Microsoft, CBS, Sony, New Line, and Paramount. 

“DCM believes that RockYou will be the catalyst of this new global ecosystem that delivers next-generation advertisements through its innovative advertising network and social applications,” stated co-founder of DCM, David Chao. “With the current momentum, RockYou is positioned to become a top-10 Internet property in the world in the near future.”

RockYou! will use the funding to grow their team and to create more applications.  RockYou! receives roughly 87.5 million unique monthly visitors and 2.7 billion page views.  RockYou! uses Google OpenSocial to spread their applications across Hi5, MySpace, and Orkut. 

“RockYou is incredibly proud to announce our funding, and are very pleased to be able to work with DCM and be a part of their impressive portfolio. RockYou is entering into a very exciting time both with the applications we are developing, and also with the expansion of our social advertising platform,” stated Lance Tokuda, the CEO of RockYou!

Warren Buffet’s advice was the best.

Information Source:
[1] Yahoo! Blog: Lemme give you a little advice by Nicki Dugan

Meebo, the online chat application that is powered by AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber has raised a Series C round of investment at $25 million. JAFCO Ventures was the lead investor. Other investors include Time Warner, KTB Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Meebo was started in September 2005 and is currently valuated at $200 million.

Meebo is a top 400 site within Alexa.  The online instant message company plans to utilize their partnership through Time Warner by working with its subsidiaries such as AOL, TMZ, New Line Cinema, People Magazine, and CNN.

Meebo will be expanding to Japan and Korea with this round of funding.  Meebo also has partnerships with VideoEgg, CBS, PUMA, and 4 record labels.  Meebo started in September 2005 and has over 29 million users sending over 150 million IMs daily.

The actual name of the company was written on a napkin by the three co-founders.   What is the deal with  coming up with business plans and Internet company names on napkins?