Category | Venture Capital

Flip creator gets into the grilled cheese business, Sequoia invests

Posted on 01 June 2011

Well, this is … unexpected. Jonathan Kaplan, who previously led the company that created the Flip camera, just announced his new company on-stage at the D9 conference — and it’s a grilled cheese company.

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Richard Garriott’s Portalarium raises money for Facebook games

Posted on 01 June 2011

Portalarium , the social and mobile game company founded by game pioneer Richard Garriott, has raised a second round of funding. Altogether, the Austin, Texas-based startup has raised $3.6 million to date. The financing includes money from m8 Capital in the United Kingdom and Founders Fund (the investment fund which includes PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel) in San Francisco.

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Twitter buys AdGrok to build its monetization platform

Posted on 01 June 2011

It’s official. Twitter has acquired internet advertising startup AdGrok , founder Matthew McEachen wrote in a blog post yesterday. AdGrok’s advertising platform simplifies the process of running internet marketing campaigns for small businesses that aren’t very familiar with the web.

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DoubleClick challenger OpenX raises $20M from SAP

Posted on 31 May 2011

OpenX , an online advertising company whose customers include deals service Groupon and news site Business Insider, just announced that it has raised $20 million in a fourth round of funding. The Los Angeles-based company bills itself as an open source alternative to ad serving products like Google-owned DoubleClick. In February, it launched its latest product, OpenX Enterprise , which includes both an ad server and an ad exchange

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App discovery startup Appsfire gets $3.6 million investment

Posted on 31 May 2011

Mobile application discovery startup Appsfire closed a $3.6 million funding round from French investors Idinvest , according to a Gigaom report. Helping consumers easily find new applications that interest them is increasingly important to developers and businesses looking to distinguish their product from competitors And considering the multitude of apps emerging from Apple’s app store , the Android Marketplace and Amazon , there is a large opportunity to make money from an app discovery platform like Appsfire. Appsfire, which is available for both iOS and Android devices, seeks to provide some clarity to the sea of new apps.

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Is AdGrok Twitter’s next big acquisition?

Posted on 31 May 2011

Twitter may be in talks to acquire contextual keyword bidding platform AdGrok for less than $10 million, according to a TechCrunch report.

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Airbnb headed for a $1 billion valuation

Posted on 30 May 2011

Social bed and breakfast startup Airbnb is in the process of closing a $100 million round of funding led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that would raise the company’s valuation to more than $1 billion, according to TechCrunch . This is a significant investment for Airbnb, which has previously raised $7.8 million, and comes days after actor-turned-investor Ashton Kutcher invested a significant amount of money in the company

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Intel to steer its center of gravity into low-power microprocessors (exclusive)

Posted on 27 May 2011

Sean Maloney, Intel ’s newly appointed president of Intel China, plans to deliver a keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taiwan next week where he will unveil a heavy-duty effort to steer Intel into the production of low-power microprocessors. Maloney is expected to say that Intel will accelerate its efforts to make chips that are more appropriate for tablet computers, smartphones, laptops, and low-power desktops. Intel has been doing that for some time.

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Reply.com acquires MerchantCircle for $60 million

Posted on 27 May 2011

Reply.com on Thursday announced it had acquired fellow Bay Area firm MerchantCircle for $60 million cash and stock. The deal is expected to go through in Q3 of this year.

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Big names back Project Slice’s smarter shopping inbox

Posted on 26 May 2011

A new startup called Project Slice wants to make all those receipts in your email inbox genuinely useful. Similar to what Mint does for your personal finances, what TripIt does for your travel plans, and what services like Manilla do for your bills , the Palo Alto, Calif. company aims to make it easier to actually see all of your purchase information in one place, rather than struggling to find it on the right website or email

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