Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Yuri Milner Launch A $33 Million “Breakthrough Prize” For The Life Sciences Foundation

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO), Sergey Brin (Google co-founder), and Yuri Milner (Russian investor/entrepreneur) have established an annual prize to reward research for curing diseases.  The “Breakthrough Prize” for the Life Sciences Foundation was announced today.  The first 11 winners of the award were announced and they involve combating cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s, etc.  Each of them will receive $3 million.

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Russian Billionaire Yuri Milner Leads $50 Million Round In 23andMe

Yuri Milner is a Russian billionaire that has led a $50 million round in 23andMe.  Milner is known for investing in big tech companies like Facebook and Zynga.  23andMe is a startup that was co-founded by the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki.  23andMe helps people determine their genetic makeup.  23andMe is named after the 23 pair of chromosomes that make up a person’s genome.

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Work4 Labs Raises $11M Series A

Work4 Labs has raised $11 million in funding.  The company focuses on helping you find a job through Facebook through Facebook Pages.  The $11 million Series A funding was led by Matrix Partners.  They are joined by DST’s Yuri Milner, former Monster.com president Steve Pogorzelski, and Hearsay Social co-founder and CEO Clara Shih.

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Salesforce.com Acquires GoInstant For Over $70 Million

Salesforce.com is acquiring startup company GoInstant for over $70 million according to sources with The Wall Street Journal. GoInstant is a two year old startup that raised $1.7 million from investors like Reid Hoffman, Yuri Milner, Chamath Palihapitiya, Baseline Ventures, and FreeStyle Capital. GoInstant has 12 employees.

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Socialcam Raises Funding From 46 Angel Investors

Socialcam is an iPhone app that spun off of video sharing website Justin.tv last year as part of Y Combinators winter 2012 class. Socialcam has raised seed funding from 46 well known angel investors. Socialcam’s fiercest competitor is Viddy. They have been fighting back and forth as the top Photo & Video app recently. Socialcam has reportedly surpassed the 20 million user mark. Below is a list of all of the investors involved as compiled by TechCrunch.
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Former Google China Head Kai-Fu Lee Raises $180 Million For Innovation Works Incubator

Kai-Fu Lee is the former head of Google China. Lee has raised $180 million for his startup incubator company founded two years ago known as Innovation Works. Innovation Works is an early-stage accelerator company.
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ZeroCater Raises $1.5 Million To Help You Plan Office Lunches

ZeroCater is a startup that plans to help you plan lunchtime for you office by handling the logistics around it. The company recently announced $1.5 million in funding. Previous investors include StartFund (SV Angel and Yuri Milner) and Y Combinator.
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