Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » The Omidyar Network

Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Launches Charity Social Network Jumo

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:09:20 +0000

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has been busy since helping build the foundation of the world’s largest social network. After co-founding Facebook with Mark, Dustin, and Eduardo he ran President Barack Obama’s social media campaign. His latest innovation is Jumo, a social network for charities. Jumo launched in Beta today. Jumo has profiles of specific charities that you and your friends can follow.

Every charity on Jumo has a news stream and you can connect to it using your Facebook account. After logging in for the first time, you can pick browse different charities on Jumo from seven topics (Arts/Culture, Education, Environment/Animals, Health, Human Rights, Peace/Governance, and Poverty).

Jumo raised $3.5 million in funding from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s VC company the Omidyar Network along with the Knight Foundation, and several other angel investors. Jumo plans to make money from sponsorships and through user payments.

[L.A. Times]

Omidyar Network Invests $1.4 Million In Ushahidi

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:21:31 +0000

Omdiyar Network – the venture capital firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam has invested $1.7 million in Ushahidi. Ushahidi is an open source emergency alert platform company. Ushahidi collects information from SMS messages, texts, e-mails, and other sources then verifies it. The associated emergencies are then placed on maps and timelines.

Ushahidi developed the platform during the 2008 election in Kenya. Violence took place out of voted fraud suspicion during that time. The platform was made to collect reports from the Kenyan citizens. The maps that Ushahidi put together was used by relief organizations and news agencies to track what is happening in certain regions.

Ushahidi has been rolled out in India, Mexico, and several countries in Africa. Ushahidi will use the money to open an office in Nairobi and to expand their development team. The Omidyar Network has also invested in several other Internet companies such as Digg, Meetup, Wikia, and Seesmic.

Omidyar Network Plans To Invest $30 Million In India and Africa

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:25:10 +0000

The Omidyar Network announced earlier this week that they plan to invest $30 million in India and Africa. The $30 million will be used to support global entrepreneurship and hopes to improve the quality of life for people in those areas. Omidyar Network’s announcement was made at the 5th annual meeting in New York for the Clinton Global Initiative.

“Imagine what’s possible if entrepreneurship flourishes worldwide. Omidyar Network aims to create opportunity for entrepreneurs to succeed; when they do, so do their families and communities,” stated Omidyar Network Managing Partner Matt Bannick. “People living in poverty are often ignored by mainstream businesses; we will prioritize our support for entrepreneurs providing services and products that can improve quality of life for those most in need.”

The investment is intended to be provided for high-impact entrepreneurs with proven business models. The investment will go towards both profit and nonprofit organizations. The Omidyar Network was started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam.

Pierre Omidyar’s Investment Firm Gives Wikipedia $2 Million Grant

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:47:01 +0000

Omidyar Network, the investment arm of Pierre Omidyar’s wealth has made a $2 million grant. Pierre is the founder of eBay and his personal wealth is roughly $3.6 billion. The Omidyar Network was started in 2004 and there was about $270 million in assets given to the investment firm.

Some of the Internet companies that the Omidyar Network invested in include Digg, Federated Media Publishing, KaBOOM, Seesmic, Linden Lab, and Wikia. Wikia is another company that was founded by the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Wikipedia receives about 300 million monthly unique visitors and is the 5th most visited website in the world. However Wikipedia runs on donations and does not have any advertising. At the end of last year, about 125,000 donors invested $6.2 million in helping keep Wikipedia alive.

Of that $6.2 million, $3 million was given by the Sloan Foundation and an anonymous friend gave $286,800. As part of the investment, Matt Halprin of Omidyar will be joining the Wikimedia Foundation board of directors. Before working at Omidyar, Halprin was the VP of global trust and safety at eBay.

Rumor: Federated Media Raising Second Round of Funding

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:16:14 +0000

Federated Media Publishing, the advertising brokerage company founded by John Batelle is rumored to be raising another amount of funding.Â The second round of funding is expected to be between $20-$30 million according to Stefanie Olsen, an editor at CNET.Â The first round of funding was $4.5 million by JPMorgan Partners, the Omidyar Network, and The New York Times.Â The Omidyar Network was founded by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.

Federated Media also recently employed GCA Savvian Advisors to help them work investment queries.Â There was a rumor floating that Federated Media was offered $100 million for a buyout, but turned it down.Â Ad networks around the world are raising funds and are being acquired.Â Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and Microsoft acquired aQuantive for $6 billion.Â Yahoo! and AOL have also picked up a couple of advertising companies as well.

Federated Media has been generating large sums of advertising revenue and has even paid some of their clients $1 million.Â Federated Media’s network of publishers include TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOM, Digg, and BoingBoing.