Backyard launched this past December and was backed with $150,000 in seed funding from 500 Startups, Jason Calacanis, and Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures. PixelFish, a local video marketing solutions company, has acquired Backyard. Backyard is a local business guide that is available on the web and on mobile devices. PixelFish has no plans of shutting down Backyard as a result of the acquisition.

Instructure is a company that has developed an open source learning management system. Instructure has raised $8 million in Series B funding from OpenView Venture Partners, EPIC Ventures, Eric Schmidt’s venture capital company Tomorrow Ventures, and Tim Draper. Instructure raised a total of $9.2 million. Instructure’s software called Canvas includes assessment tools, discussions, web chat, multiple assignment submission types, drag-and-drop file uploads, HTML5 video, and speech-to-text conversion.

Social Gaming Network (SGN) has raised funding from Tomorrow Ventures, a VC company started by Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  SGN focuses on making games for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.   This was SGN’s second round of funding at $2 million.  SGN’s previous round of funding was $15 million. [TechCrunch]