Riley Kennysmith | August 9, 2011 | 339 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Bloomspot, Columbia Capital, Erik Blachford, Gary Parsons, Harrison Metal, InterWest Partners, Jasper Malcomson, Menlo Ventures, QED Investors, True Ventures, Western Technology Investment

Bloomspot, a deals company focused on high-quality spending and loyal customers, has raised $40 million in funding. The funding comes from InterWest Partners, Columbia Capital, Menlo Ventures, True Ventures, QED Investors, Harrison Metal, Western Technology Investment, Erik Blachford and Gary Parsons. The company analyzes (with permission, TechCrunch reports) the credit card spending data of the places they’re running deals, allowing Bloomspot and their partner merchants the opportunity to see whether a deal really encourages other buying that makes the deal profitable for the merchant. That data helps predict how much customers will spend when provided with a certain offer, which in turn lets Bloomspot promise a certain level of profits to their partner merchants.

Amit Chowdhry | May 25, 2011 | 591 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Alloy Ventures, GigaOM, Kevin Brown, Reed Elsevier Ventures, True Ventures

Technology blog and research company GigaOM has raised $6 million in a round led by London-based venture capital company Reed Elsevier Ventures. Reed is one of the largest publishing companies. Other investors participating in this round include Alloy Ventures and True Ventures. Kevin Brown of REV will be joining the board of directors. GigaOM is raising a new round of funding so they can grow GigaOM Pro. GigaOM Pro is a research service that has over 400 in-depth reports that covers 5 industries in real-time. [GigaOM]
Amit Chowdhry | April 5, 2011 | 702 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Chris Kobran, Crosslink Capital, Dan Silberberger, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Kiip, Lars Leckie, True Ventures

Kiip is an in-game advertising company that has announced $4 million in Series A funding in a round that is led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, and True Ventures. Kiip has not revealed how they plan on using the funding. They plan on using the funding to “bridge the gap between mobile advertising and mobile gaming.” Hummer Winblad partner Lars Leckie will be joining the board of directors at Kiip. Kiip has hired former director of sales at Digg Chris Kobran as VP of sales and former EA Mobile employee Dan Silberberger as VP of business development. [Vator TV]
Amit Chowdhry | March 14, 2011 | 486 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under 500 Startups, BackType, Founder Collective, Freestyle Capital, K9 Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Raymond Tonsing, True Ventures

BackType is a social analytics company that allows you to enter a URL to find out how big the website’s social media impact is. When you enter a URL, it shows the number of Twitter followers, retweets, Reddit comments, Hacker News comments, Digg comments, etc. that is related to that particular URL. The investors in the $1 million seed round was led by True Ventures, K9 Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Lowercase Capital, 500 Startups, Founder Collective, Raymond Tonsing, and several other angel investors.

Amit Chowdhry | January 5, 2011 | 798 views | 1 Comment
Categorized under Alex Bard, Assistly, Bullpen Capital, Goowy Media Inc., Index Ventures, Kenny Van Zant, Social Leverage, True Ventures

Assistly is a customer relationship management software company that has raised $3 million in a second round of funding. Assistly mashes up different forms of communication in one interface. These methods of communication include e-mail, phone calls, Twitter, and Facebook. Assistly started in 2009 and this is co-founder Alex Bard’s second customer service company. Bard previously sold a company to AOL called Goowy Media.

Amit Chowdhry | December 30, 2010 | 595 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Appconomy, True Ventures

Appconomy is a start-up company that develops mobile applications that is based in Austin, Texas. Appconomy has two divisions, a Studios and Labs division. Appconomy Studios works with enterprises to develop applications for businesses. Appconomy Labs helps enterprises with mobile research and strategy. Palo Alto based VC firm True Ventures led the funding in Appconomy. [VentureBeat]
Amit Chowdhry | December 20, 2010 | 1,046 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under About.me, America Online, AOL, AOL Ventures, Ryan Freitas, Tim Young, Tony Conrad, True Ventures

Well, this is a first. In the same day I wrote about a start-up exiting beta mode, the same company announced that they have been acquired. AOL has acquired custom profile and personal analytics dashboard service About.me.

Amit Chowdhry | November 4, 2010 | 468 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Founders Co-op, Foundry Group, True Ventures, Urban Airship

Urban Airship is a mobile company that helps developers set up push notifications and in-app purchases. The company has raised $5.4 million in funding led by Foundry Group and includes True Ventures and Founders Co-op. Urban Airship makes push and in-app purchases possible on multiple mobile operating systems including iOS, BlackBerry, and Android. Urban Airship also recently started offering mobile subscription services. Some of their clients include Tapulous, LivingSocial, and Gowalla. [TechCrunch]