Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Western Technology Investment

Bloomspot Raises $40 Million

Riley Kennysmith — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:27:05 +0000

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.

Customers who use Bloomspot are rewarded for their data with better deals for repeat purchases with the same merchant and for using the same card with both Bloomspot and the merchant. Bloomspot’s CEO and co-founder Jasper Malcomson explains, “in a way, it’s less about discounts and savings, and more about recognition and status.”

HealthGuru.com Raises $6 Million in Funding

Riley Kennysmith — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:51:32 +0000

Health Guru Media provides, as the name suggests, health info videos at HealthGuru.com. TechCrunch reports that thanks to investors Western Technology Investment, Castile Ventures and Village Ventures, HealthGuru.com has raised $6 million in funding for their startup. Their CEO Joshua Silberstein says the site streams more video than rivals WebMD and Everyday Health combined.

Topsy Raises $15 Million In Third Round

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:50:49 +0000

Topsy is a real-time search engine that has raised $15 million in a third round of funding. Topsy allows users to search for real-time content on Facebook and Twitter. Topsy recently launched Topsy Social Modules, which lets publishers add real-time content to their websites. Social Modules are being used by websites such as Discovery Communications and The Huffington Post. Western Technology Investments, BlueRun Ventures, Ignition Partners, Founders Fund, and Scott Banister invested in this round. This puts Topsy at a total of $30 million in funding. [VentureBeat]

Social Media Marketing Platform Company Involver Raises $8 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 06:16:33 +0000

Involver is a social media management platform company that offers Facebook Page applications. Involver has raised $8 million in funding led by Bessemer. Existing investors Western Technology Investment and Cervin Ventures also participated in this round. Involver started in 2007 and has about 100,000 clients including The White House, Facebook, and Alicia Keys. Some of the applications companies can use for their Facebook Pages include audio players and sign-up forms. [VentureBeat]

SAP Acquires Coghead, A Cloud Computing Company

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:50:59 +0000

SAP (NYSE:SAP), the company behind one of the most popular enterprise software is getting into the cloud computing game through the acquisition of Coghead. Coghead will be shutting down their business and letting go of customers as a part of the acquisition. SAP bought out Coghead’s intellectual property and hired their engineering team. SAP doesn’t plan on reselling Coghead’s service anytime soon.

“SAP is one of the premier tech companies in the world and we’re really happy this transaction took place,” stated Paul McNamara, Coghead’s CEO. “However, the Coghead business model is not in keeping with the kinds of things that SAP wants to do.”

Coghead’s primary service was to allow customers to develop and host database applications using a simple drag & drop interface. Coghead’s service will run through April, but after that it is safe to assume that the service will no longer be around.

Since Coghead started a few years ago, they raised about $13.7 million from El Dorado Ventures, American Capital Strategies, Western Technology Investment, and SAP Ventures.