Amit Chowdhry | September 26, 2011 | 1,010 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Chernin Group, David Karp, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Richard Branson, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Tumblr, Union Square Ventures

Tumblr is a popular blogging service that has raised $85 million in a new round of funding. Tumblr is best known for simple blogging tools to post photos, videos, songs, etc. The investment in this round was led by Greylock Partners. Insight Venture Partners, the Chernin Group, Richard Branson, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Sequoia Capital also participated in this round.

Amit Chowdhry | August 17, 2011 | 516 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Founder Collective, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Skillshare, Spark Capital, SV Angel, Union Square Ventures

Skillshare is a P2P learning company that has raised $3.1 million in funding from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Skillshare is a platform that can help turn anyone into a teacher. Users can offer their own offline classes based on their skill. Skillshare takes 15% of the revenue.

Riley Kennysmith | July 8, 2011 | 560 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Biz Stone, Obvious.com, Spark Capital, The Obvious Corporation, Twitter

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter who recently stepped away from the company to relaunch Obvious, has taken a role as strategic advisor at Spark Capital. According to Mashable, startups Spark Capital has invested in include Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Boxee, Kik and Stack Exchange. Stone also runs the Biz & Livia Stone Foundation and is a strategic advisor at AOL.
Amit Chowdhry | June 5, 2011 | 519 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Betaworks, Eniac Ventures, Jason Baptiste, Lerer Ventures, Lightbank, Morado, OnSwipe, Spark Capital, SV Angel, Thrive Capital, Yuri Milner

OnSwipe is a tablet publishing company that has raised $5 million in “Series Awesome.” This past January OnSwipe raised $1 million in seed funding. This round of funding was led by Spark Capital and followed on by Lightbank. Yuri Milner, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Betaworks, Morado, Eniac Ventures, and Thrive Capital also participated in this round.

Amit Chowdhry | April 16, 2011 | 983 views | 1 Comment
Categorized under Andrew Parker, Bijan Sabet, BNTER, Chris Dixon, Lauren Leto, Michigan State University, Ron Conway, Sarah Lacy, Spark Capital

When Sarah Lacy interviewed Spark Capital partner Bijan Sabet about the danger of venture capital firms investing in similar companies, she indirectly found out about some drama between Tumblr and BNTER after doing some follow-up investigation. Lacy found out from three sources that Spark Capital had reneged on a term sheet that was offered to BNTER, a start-up based in New York founded by Lauren Leto.

Amit Chowdhry | April 6, 2011 | 633 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Spark Capital, Txteagle

Txteagle is a mobile consumer surveys company that has raised $8.5 million in venture capital led by Spark Capital. Txteagle was founded in 2009 and is based in Boston. They have gathered data from 2.1 billion consumers. Txteagle’s software allows consumers to send and receive survey messages to them for free. Those who participate in the surveys are given free airtime if the mobile operators are affiliated with Txteagle. [DMWMedia]
Amit Chowdhry | March 28, 2011 | 852 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Adap.tv, Bessemer Venture Partners, Bessemer Ventures, Gemini Israel Funds, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital

Adap.tv has raised $20 million in funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Gemini Israel Funds, Redpoint Ventures, and Spark Capital. Adap.tv has raised a total of $43 million thus far. Adap.tv’s platform lets advertising companies manage their online video ads. Publishers use Adap.tv to monetize their websites with the video content. Adap.tv currently sees about 60 million unique visitors and they deliver about 1.8 billion video ad views per month. [TechCrunch]
Amit Chowdhry | March 14, 2011 | 685 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Kik Interactive, RRE Ventures, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures

Mobile messaging startup company Kik Interactive has raised $8 million in Series A funding from RRE Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Spark Capital. Fred Wilson (Union Square) and Adam Ludwin (RRE) are joining the Kik board of directors as a result of the funding. Kik Messenger launched in October 2010 and it works similarly as the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). After downloading Kik, the app will scan your contacts and let you know which of your friends have Kik. Kik hit about 1 million users within the first 15 days of launching to the public. Today Kik has over 3 million users. [Kik Press Release]