Work Market is a marketplace that businesses can use to manage freelancers and contractors. The company has raised $10 million in a round of funding that was led by Softbank Capital. Other investors that participated in this round include Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures.
NowThisNews is a video news service startup that has raised $4.8 million. Investors in this round include Lerer Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, SoftBank Capital, and Oak Investment. SoftBank principal Nikhil Kalghatgi is joining NowThisNews’ board of directors.
FlightCar is a startup that is change the landscape in the airport car rental business. The company allows travelers that are leaving town to make their cars available for people that are visiting town. FlightCar piloted their service at the San Francisco International Airport a few months ago and has plans to expand to other cities over the next year.
Criteo is an advertising retargeting company that is planning to go public this year according to JDN. Criteo is still debating whether to go public on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq. They are planning to raise between $270 and $400 million when they go public.
Twitter has acquired Bluefin, a TV analytics company. This acquisition is believed to be Twitter’s large acquisition to date. Twitter definitely spent over $40 million on the acquisition since that is what they spent on TweetDeck two years ago.
InMobi is a mobile advertising company that has acquired Overlay Media, an aware computing company. Overlay Media’s data scientists have created a Context Engine platform that delivers personalized content to mobile users.
BuzzFeed is a content website that writes all sorts of interesting articles. It does not matter if the article is about “50 Puppies To Help You Get Through Work Today” or “The Best Mr. T GIF Ever.” If the content has a chance of going viral, BuzzFeed will try to put it out there. The company has just raised $19.3 million in funding. BuzzFeed plans on hiring more employees and to expand their presence on mobile phones. BuzzFeed has raised a total of around $47 million.
Cheezburger has raised $5 million in funding according to an SEC filing. Cheezburger is known as the parent company for several humorous content channels like I Can Has Cheezburger, Fail Blog, and Memebase. Investors in this round include Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, Avalon Ventures, and SoftBank Capital. Cheezburger was launched by Ben Huh in 2007. The company has over 50 websites in their network. The company makes money from advertising, book publishing, and merchandising. The company raised $30 million in funding last year. Cheezburger even has a reality show where the camera interviews employees and follows the day-to-day at the company called “LOLwork.” A Cheezburger spokesperson said that the new round of funding will go towards building a social humor platform.
