Tradeshift calls itself a social network for business but its main service is currently free, web-based invoicing. The company just landed $7M in funding from Notion Capital.

Notion Capital is the venture fund of the founders of MessageLabs, which was sold to Symantec for $700 million in 2008. Tradeshift previously received seed funding from PayPal.

The company was started by a group of developers who created the e-invoicing system for the Danish government. 50,000 businesses currently use the invoicing service to send, receive and manage e-invoices, purchase orders and credit notes. Customers include the UK’s National Health Service and the Irish and French governments. Tradeshift allows customers like these to receive electronic invoices from all of their suppliers. Customers can also leave comments and status updates on invoices so suppliers don’t have to call a customer and ask where their money is.

Tradeshift is free and will monetize its platform via applications and financial services for users. Later this month the company plans to launch an app store delivering a range of business apps like credit checking suppliers, accounting integration and time sheet invoice creation, developed both by its own team and the Tradeshift developer community.

Although electronic invoicing has been around for a long time, Tradeshift claims that no other company provides free invoicing that is entirely web-based. Invoicing companies typically charge per transaction.

Tradeshift was founded in 2009, has 30 employees and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Tags: e-invoice, invoice

Companies: Notion Capital, Tradeshift

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

The senator wants to be kept in the loop re any ‘suspicious trading’ at SAC Capital (he doesn’t know of any, but in case anything comes up in the files) and also has questions just generally about what life is like there.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Wall Street’s major self-regulatory organization asking for any reports reflecting “suspicious trading” involving SAC Capital that it had received from exchanges since 2000. “The use of nonpublic information for insider trading purposes is sadly alive and well in our nation’s financial markets,” Sen. Grassley wrote to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. “More must be done to investigate and bring these criminals to justice.” In the letter, which was dated April 26 and released Friday, Sen. Grassley cited recent insider-trading cases, including charges against two former SAC fund managers, writing: “While SAC Capital itself has not been charged, these allegations raise serious questions about the corporate culture at SAC Capital and undercut investor confidence in a fair and balanced playing field.”

[WSJ]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Today’s funding announcements include companies that develop cameras, distribute customer reviews and manage APIs:

GoPro brings in funding for action video recorders: The developer of the HD HERO line of wearable and gear mountable cameras has raised has raised an undisclosed yet “substantial” round of funding from Riverwood Capital, Steamboat Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Sageview Capital and Walden International. The company, based in Half Moon Bay, Calif., is popular among pro athletes, pro video producers and consumers alike for its cameras and accessories, which will now be sold in all Best Buy stores nationwide.

PowerReviews raises $10M to generate customer feedback: The customer review service has raised a new round of funding led by Four Rivers Group with participation from Woodside Fund, Menlo Ventures and Tenaya Capital. Based in San Francisco, the company provides the technology for user-generated reviews to more than 5,000 retailers including Brookstone, Drugstore.com and Diapers.com.

Mashery gets $11M to manage APIs: The provider of tools and services for API (application programming interface) management has raised a fourth round of funding led by OpenView Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Cisco, Formative Ventures, First Round Capital and .406 Ventures. The San Francisco company, which was founded in 2006, today has a network of more than 100,000 developers and has more than 100 clients including Netflix, The New York Times and CNET.

Newtopia grabs seed funding to whip you into shape: The personalized health coaching service has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from BDC Venture Capital and Canadian angel investors, peHUB reports. Founded in 2008, the company provides lifestyle management advice to users in the form of individualized health plans, coaching support and exercise help.

Companies: .406 Ventures, Cisco, First Round Capital, Formative Ventures, Four Rivers Group, GoPro, Mashery, Menlo Ventures, Newtopia, OpenView Venture Partners, powerreviews, Riverwood Capital, Sageview Capital, Steamboat Ventures, Tenaya Capital, U.s. Venture Partners, Walden International, Woodside Fund

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April performance.

Renaissance Institutional Futures Fund
April 2011: +3.4%
YTD: 3.0%

Greenlight Capital Qualified
April 2011: +0.9%
YTD: (2.0)%

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[...]

Greenlight Capital Q1 Letter [PDF]

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Level E Capital founder Sonia Schulenburg, pictured, want to put your money to work.

The details:

* Level E Capital is looking for investors for its Maya Fund

* The fund’s trades are made by a robot, who’s yet to be named (first investor to pledge a billion could ask for the right)

Maya, whose server is kept in a two-meter-tall air-cooled cabinet, uses so-called artificial intelligence to process data and, unlike other mathematics-based funds, adjusts to changing market conditions “on the fly,” she said. The fund makes as many as 1,000 trades a day, mainly in FTSE 100 companies and those in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

* This fund is different

“This is definitely different because it’s dynamic,” Michael MacPhee, a partner at Baillie Gifford, which invested $15 million last year with Schulenburg, said at his Edinburgh office. “Most quant funds are pennies in front of a steamroller. This thing actually adapts, it’s intelligent.”

* Schulenberg holds a doctorate in artificial intelligence and an associates degree in flexing

Schulenburg also competed in natural, or non drug-enhanced, bodybuilding events. She placed third in the U.K. championships for her weight in 1998 and 2000. She also was a Scottish champion, according to Guy Addison, who runs the Body Academy in Perth. Schulenburg no longer competes, though she said she trains sporadically.

* If “I’m on top of the world/I’m in a glass case of emotion” returns are you thing, this fund is not for you

“We don’t offer that roller-coaster performance,” Schulenburg said. “When people are celebrating, we don’t, and when people are crying and committing suicide, we don’t.”

Bodybuilding Mexican Academic Woos Edinburgh With ‘Robot’ Fund [Bloombeg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Today’s funding announcements include companies that help users discover videos, find babysitters and manage networks:

Video search company Digitalsmiths grabs $12.5M: The developer of video search and discovery products has raised a third round of funding led by Technicolor with participation from existing investors including .406 Ventures, Aurora Funds,Chrysalis Ventures, Capitol Broadcasting and Cisco. Based in Durham, North Carolina, the company helps content owners and consumers easily find relevant videos. During this year’s NCAA March Madness, Digitalsmiths partnered with Turner Sports to provide real-time search capabilities of game videos.

Sittercity gets $22.6M to bring families and caregivers together: The online service has raised a new round of funding led by Baird Venture Partners and New World Ventures to match families with babysitters, pet sitters and other caregivers, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Chicago-based company, which serves individuals along with serving employees of companies through its corporate program, plans to use the funding to expand domestically and abroad.

AppNeta gets $6.2M to manage network performance: The Wellesley, Mass.-based company has raised a new round of funding from Bain Capital Ventures, Egan-Managed Capital, JMI Equity and Business Development Bank of Canada. The company, which relaunched today as AppNeta from Apparent Networks, currently works with more than 1,000 managed service providers and enterprise customers to ensure consistent network performance in data center, cloud, remote office and mobile environments.

Sewichi raises seed round for mobile analytics: The Seattle-based startup has raised an undisclosed amount from Madrona Venture Group with participation from the company’s founder, who was an early employee at airfare prediction site Farecast. The early stage company has not yet released many details but claims it will be focused on mobile analytics and measurement.

Companies: .406 Ventures, AppNeta, Aurora Funds, Bain Capital Ventures, Baird Venture Partners, Capitol Broadcasting, Chrysalis Ventures, Cisco, Digitalsmiths, Egan Managed Capital, JMI Equity, Madrona Venture Group, New World Ventures, Sewichi, Sittercity, Technicolor

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Today’s funding announcements include new solutions for shopping, reading and computing:

Decide gets $6M for eCommerce company: The Seattle-based company has raised a second round of funding led by Maveron with participation from Madrona Venture Group and angel investors. The site, still in stealth mode but expected to go live this spring, was co-founded by Oren Etzioni, founder of airfare prediction service Farecast, and is “bringing unprecedented transparency to electronics shopping.”

Byliner raises $935K for new nonfiction destination: The company behind Byliner.com, a site offering archives of nonfiction writing, has raised a round of seed funding led by Freestyle Capital and SoftTechVC with participation from other investors. The site, which will officially launch in May, plans to offer its users recommendations and discussion forums for nonfiction work. The site will also distribute Byliner Originals, nonfiction pieces published in digital form by Byliner. The company is based in San Francisco.

IO Turbine brings in $7.75M to improve virtualized computing performance: The San Jose-based software company has raised a new round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Merus Capital and angel investors. Founded in December 2009, the company has partnered with VMware and Microsoft and is working on a solution to address I/O bottleneck issues by using Flash technology.

Companies: Byliner, Decide, farecast, Freestyle Capital, IO Turbine, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, Merus Capital, Microsoft, Softtechvc, VMWare

People: Oren Etzioni

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Bamboom Labs announced yesterday that it has raised $4.5 million in seed financing for developing technology that allows consumers watch live TV over the Internet. New York-based FirstMark Capital led the round, also participating were High Line Venture Partners, SV Angel, First Round Capital, and Highland Capital Partners.

Bamboom Labs is headed by Chaitanya “Chet” Kanojia who’s last startup Navic Networks was acquired by Microsoft in 2008.

The company’s technologies allow customers to access free over-the-air broadcast signals over the Internet and direct it to connected devices.

The team includes people from Navic and Microsoft as well as RF and digital technology engineers from Andrew Corporation, Lucent and others.

Copyright laws make distributing the TV programming over the Internet quite tricky. There needs to be some creativity from Bamboom’s side. The company cannot just redistribute the TV signal over the internet without facing the wrath of copyright holders. That means Bamboom would need to license content to retransmit it over the net — a costly and complicated process that even Google has had trouble with.

Bamboom’s way around copyright issues at the moment is to rent a personal antenna to the customer. That way the customers, not the company, are responsible for recording and retransmitting. And that should take care of the issue, LA Times reports.

Tags: Internet TV, Seed financing

Companies: Bamboom Labs, First Round Capital, Firstmark Capital, High Line Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners, SV Angel

People: Chet Kanojia

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Today’s funding announcements include companies offering ad campaign management, mobile game advertising and electronic medical records:

Marin Software brings in $16M for search ad tools: The San Francisco-based company has raised a fifth round of funding led by Crosslink Capital to help advertisers and agencies manage online ad campaigns. The company, which works with 800 clients on search campaigns in 160 countries, expanded its service to Facebook last August and plans to use the latest funding in part to focus on international growth. Marin Software also announced today that John Kaelle, formerly VP of finance at Shutterfly, has joined the Marin Software team as executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Kiip raises $3.6M for in-game advertising: The startup founded by teenage entrepreneur Brian Wong has raised a new round of equity funding led by Hummer Winblad with participation from True Ventures, Crosslink Capital and others, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded in 2010, the San Francisco-based company says it is looking to hire business development employees and iPhone developers.

Practice Fusion grabs $23M for free online medical records: The provider of a web-based electronic medical record (EMR) system has raised a second round of funding led by Facebook and Founders Fund. The San Francisco-based company says more than 75,000 healthcare professionals use its free network to support more than 60,000 patient visits each day.

HouseTrip lands $2.7M for short-term apartment rentals: The apartment rentals website has raised a first round of funding led by Index Ventures to match apartment owners with travelers looking for a place to stay. Founded in 2009 and based in London, the company has listings in more than 350 destinations globally and lets owners list their apartments for free on the site.

Companies: CrossLink Capital, Facebook, Founders Fund, HouseTrip, Index Ventures, Kiip, Marin Software, Practice Fusion, Shutterfly, Spacex

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals