Typekit, a subscription-based font service for web designers, has raised $2.05 million of an expected $3 million in equity. True Ventures led the round, according to a filing with the SEC.

Based in San Francisco, Typekit provides users with a library of fonts that are both high quality and legal. The fonts are also easy to embed online by simply adding a line of code to a web page. Users can try the cloud-based service for free, and subscriptions range from $24.99 per year for a personal blog to customized pricing for large enterprise customers.

Last month, The New York Times redesigned its Opinion Pages using Typekit. Originally called Small Batch, the startup was founded in 2008 and raised $700,000 in 2009 from investors including True Ventures, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Flickr founder Caterina Fake and investor Ron Conway.

Companies: Small Batch, The New York Times, True Ventures, Typekit

People: Caterina Fake, Evan Williams, Ron Conway

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Austin startup ATX Innovation has built a mobile application called TabbedOut to eliminate a big inconvenience in your life — or my life, anyway. It’s addressing those moments when you’ve finished a meal but have to wave your arm wildly for minutes before you finally get the check, then wave it again to actually pay. Or maybe those times when you’ve tried to close out your tab at a bar but found five people in line ahead of you.

ATX just raised $2.05 million in new funding to tackle that problem with its TabbedOut app.

After users download the app, they can choose their location from a list of supported restaurants and bars. Then they open a tab, which is assigned a special code that they share with their waiter or bartender. Items get added to the tab as they’re ordered. When you’re ready to go, you just use the app to pay by credit card. No more delays.

TabbedOut even includes a tip calculator and an option to call a cab.

There are plenty of companies tackling mobile payments from different angles. Perhaps the most prominent is Square, which allows business owners to read credit cards with their phones.

I like TabbedOut because it’s addressing a specific and familiar problem. The company also notes that it integrates with existing “point of sale” systems, which means that restaurants don’t have to buy new equipment to process the payments, and they get paid directly — they don’t have to wait for TabbedOut to send them a check.

It’s still early in TabbedOut’s growth. The company said it’s currently supported by more than 90 restaurants and bars in 28 cities, including Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, and Chicago. With the new funding, TabbedOut hopes to accelerate that growth, in part by striking deals with more partners and resellers.

The money comes from New Enterprise Associates. TabbedOut has now raised a total of $2.75 million.

Tags: mobile payments

Companies: ATX Innovation, New Enterprise Associates, TabbedOut

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

ClairMail, which sells mobile tools for banking alerts and transactions, announced today that it has raised $13.8 million in a late-stage round of funding.

ClairMail offers a suite of mobile applications to help consumers stay aware of their account status with each bank. The platform provides a mobile application, text messaging alerts, and the like to update users on new activity regarding their bank accounts. ClairMail also offers mobile payment options and ways for credit card companies to deliver alerts to their customers.

The most recent fundraising round was led by Investor Growth Capital. Existing investors JAFCO Partners, Northwest Venture Partners and Outlook Ventures also participated in the round. The funding is pegged to help improve its mobile infrastructure and for research and development.

Interest in mobile banking has grown lately with each major bank providing its own mobile banking applications. Some financial institutions, like USAA, also offer ways for banking customers to deposit checks simply by taking a picture of the check with an iPhone. Data from comScore indicates that

The VC market may be shrinking in the U.S. but there are still opportunities in Europe. So says Fergal Mullen, a General Partner in Highland Capital Partners, which is a VC firm with $3 billion of committed capital in more than 200 companies. Mullen heads up Highland’s activities in Europe. I talked to Mullen about why the fund is expanding in Europe (Highland just added a new partner to bolster its Geneva office) and the special issues VCs face there.

Although the economies of Europe and the U.S. are similar in size, there is a huge discrepancy in the VC markets. The European VC market is only about one sixth of the size of that in the U.S. Mullen says that traditionally the U.S. VC market has been over-invested, while Europe’s is under-invested. As a result, a massive correction has been happening in VC funding in the U.S., including a 50-60% drop in the last year alone. Europe, in comparison, still has considerable space to grow, and according to Mullen, the VC market there should be of the order of $8-10 billion, rather than the current $6 billion.

The European VC market is dominated by local firms. Highland is one of the few U.S. firms operating there. Mullen maintains that American firms tend to go for bigger plays and this can be refreshing for European entrepreneurs used to funding constraints.

European startups face some special challenges. U.S. entrepreneurs will always have the advantage of having a large market on their doorstep with a common language and culture. However, for this very reason, European startups are better equipped to internationalize at an early stage. Another difference is that European venture deals have traditionally been over-syndicated (many investors involved), which can lead to a less cohesive board. There is no single tech and investment hub equivalent to Silicon Valley. Instead innovation, and investors, are scattered all over Europe in centers like Berlin, London and Barcelona.

It’s not all bad news. The sophistication of the European high-tech investment scene and the entrepreneurs themselves has been increasing in leaps and bounds over the past 10 years. The lack of a dominating hub also means that there is less competition for deals and a higher chance of finding that hidden gem of an investment.

I asked Mullen if there is any single thing that governments in Europe could do to encourage entrepreneurs. He thinks that the EU’s taxation policy on stock options is in need of a radical overhaul. Currently, gains from stock options are taxed at a similar level to salary income, whereas stock option income is taxed at a lower level in the U.S.

Mullen sees online entertainment and games as a hot sector in Europe right now. There is a well-developed ecosystems of developers and gamers. Highland also invests in many online retail companies, and Europe has had some considerable successes there, such as private sales company Vente Privee in France. In fact, Mullen says he would love to see Vente Privee go public.

According to Mullen, one thing in the VC business remains the same worldwide: “This is a people business. The art is in knowing someone special when you see him.”

Tags: Europe, Investment, vc

Companies: Highland Capital Partners, Vente Privee

People: Fergal Mullen

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Andreas Bernström is chief executive of Rebtel, a VOIP calling service.

Voice is the new black. Seems like after all the hype of apps, the world still wants to connect in real-time and in many cases is willing to pay for such value. In the battle of voice, Skype, Google, Apple, telecom operators and independent outfits are gearing up for battle. The trillion-dollar land grab is officially on.

Apple launched FaceTime video chat. Google Talk is turning into the new pay phone. Oh, and Skype has filed for an IPO as well as announcing plans to enter the enterprise space.

But besides the indie stalwarts, who’s the dark horse in the room?

Facebook.

What should it do? How should it enter the space? The answer is clear. Buy Skype.

Yes, despite the rumors you may have heard that Facebook is already working on building a phone, or working on the software that a third party hardware device would support, the company has clear ambitions to leverage their massive contact lists and the opportunities to do that go well beyond a simple Facebook phone.

I’m not the only person to think of this. Following reports that Facebook and Skype are working on an integration deal, GigaOm wondered, “Should Facebook buy Skype?” Here are four reasons why a Skype purchase makes sense:

1. Facebook’s social graph is the best phonebook in the world built from their mission statement up.

Facebook’s mission statement reads:

Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections.

Sounds like a calling option fits right in. What could be more real-time?

The list of companies that have had a similar mission statement is long. However, what sets Facebook apart from its predecessors is the unique critical mass of users. Let’s be honest here. Do you know anyone who matters to you (other than possibly your grandparents) who you cannot get a hold of through Facebook?

From a network perspective, Facebook epitomizes Metcalfe’s law. What that means for people is that the value of joining Facebook is simply too great to ignore just because it is so ubiquitous. Facebook is the sole social network to ever exist that plays host to a social graph made up of our real-world social connections. I am not talking about the same people we follow on Twitter and enjoy the occasional update from. I am talking about people we actually know.

Sure Facebook could try to build this themselves but Skype has a lot of things that Facebook doesn’t including excellence in calling service, routing, origination and termination. Skype owns relationships with carriers, operators and suppliers worldwide. They have built out online fraud and payment expertise. This isn’t rocket science for Facebook to build, but takes a lot of time and talent.

2. Facebook and Skype have a common lineage.

These social behemoths intersect at Marc Andreessen, whom VentureBeat has called the new king of Silicon Valley. Andreessen’s venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, which he cofounded with longtime business partner Ben Horowitz, was a lead firm in the buyout of Skype from eBay only a few months ago. In addition, he also holds a position on the Facebook board of directors and is widely known as a close advisor to Mark Zuckerberg himself.

If there is anyone who could build a bridge between Skype and Facebook and turn them into one symbiotic entity, it is Andreessen. With regards to the rumored (and probably imminent) social networking war between Facebook and Google, it is rather unlikely Andreessen hasn’t noticed the synergies and end user value a marriage between Skype and Facebook would entail.

If the Google Me rumors are true, Facebook is bound to create a more holistic and compelling ecosystem, similar to Google’s. A lot of us are already heavily invested in Google and it is absolutely vital for Facebook to include voice as a cornerstone in the project of building a social eco-system appealing and competitive enough to go against Google.

3. Facebook is already the most popular mobile app of all time, ready for a turn-key global calling play.

The most recent numbers speak for themselves. Out of more than 500 million people using Facebook, 30 percent, or approximately 150 million, interact with the service on a regular basis using a mobile device. They access the service either through the Facebook mobile website or by way of any of the mobile apps Facebook has made available for the Android, Blackberry and iPhone platforms. With the continuous proliferation in the use of third-party apps on mobile devices, this figure is bound to keep soaring.

Other than the obvious value of being able to connect with friends while on the go (for free), users also have access to the most comprehensive, cloud-based contact list out there. The tedious process of constantly making sure all contacts details to your friends are current is no longer a concern either, as a Facebook Phone Book manages itself by having all the personal details in it tied to Facebook profiles.

Facebook becoming our de facto address book is a vision bound to become reality in a not too distant future. It is a highly utilitarian aspect of the service that hasn’t been properly exploited. By deeply integrating Skype, the most recognized consumer calling service with the greatest mind share, Facebook would not only boost its revenue to greater heights but also position the company very favorably in the war against Google.

4. Skype wants a big exit but also a better fit than last time.

Let’s face it. eBay didn’t know how to properly leverage Skype. It was a
failed premise from the start that sellers would want to talk to their buyers on eBay. This time around Skype certainly wants the best financial exit. Besides pure cash
liquidity, who has the fastest rising private stock? It’s got to be Facebook
in the last 6 months, with analysts valuation having been raised from $10 billion to
$33 billion.

Who can scale Skype to the biggest user base? It has to be
Facebook again. Skype may want $5 billion but would it settle for $4 billion and the
promise of a fast rising stock like Facebook. Skype founders would
ideally like to stay involved if such an acquisition happened, but that seems doubtful with Zennstrom and Friis being notoriously difficult and probably not compatible with Facebook’s intent on running a tight ship.

Why does a combined SkypeBook beat Google? The graph is greater.

By building the social graph for all Google services of any remote social nature based on the people we send emails to, Google committed a cardinal sin that might prove detrimental. The connections tied to your Gmail account that now also double as your Google Chat contacts (yes, the same ones Google wants you to call), are predominantly formal contacts. Your co-workers, your real estate agent and so on. The people that we send emails to are not the same people that we want to have a voice, let alone a video conversation with.

Email was, is, and will be the main standard for formal communication for a foreseeable future. We use it to communicate with our co-workers, to send customer support requests and to contact our real estate agent when we want to sell our house.

Dan Tapscott (celebrated author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital), frequently touches on this in the context of media habits for the generation of Digital Natives:

Young people don’t use email anymore. They see it as a traditional form of communication. They use it to thank their grandparents for a Birthday gift (or other times when they have to speak with old people).

So, where are all these friends that we want call? Chances are you’ll find them on Facebook.

Tags: FaceTime, Google Talk, video chat, voip

Companies: Facebook, Rebtel, Skype

People: Andreas Bernström, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

A team of four mobile entrepreneurs and investors just announced that they’ve formed Eniac Ventures, a seed investment firm aiming to back in mobile startups.

The firm says it has raised $1.6 million in its first fund, which it will invest in $25,000 to $100,000 chunks over the next four years or so.

Eniac is the supposedly the first seed fund with an exclusive focus on the mobile industry. And its partners Hadley Harris, Nihal Mehta, Vic Singh, and Tim Young aren’t just investors — they all have high-level positions at mobile startups right now. Mehta, for example, was an angel investor in AdMob (which was acquired by Google for $750 million), but he’s also the chief executive of mobile startup Buzzd.

The firm is named after the world’s first computer. The idea is that the mobile phones are the next big computing platform and will, in Mehta’s words, become “bigger than the Web giants that emerged a decade ago.” (Plus, Eniac was built at the University of Pennsylvania, which is where the four partners met as well.)

Eniac says it has already invested in six startups, including Localytics, MightyMeeting, Instinctiv, and Philo.

Tags: mobile investing, seed funds, seed investing

Companies: Eniac Ventures, Instinctiv, Localytics, MightyMeeting, Philo

People: Hadley Harris, Nihal Mehta, Tim Young, Vic Singh

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Silver Peak Systems, a developer of tools to enhance the performance of wide area networks (WAN), has closed a $4.1 million round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. The software company offers its clients solutions like data backup, data recovery and centralized storage.

Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Silver Peak Systems works primarily with municipalities and businesses with branch offices. Founded in 2004, the firm has raised more than $67 million to date from investors including Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners and Pinnacle Ventures.

Companies: Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Pinnacle Ventures, Silver Peak Systems

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Silver Peak Systems, a developer of tools to enhance the performance of wide area networks (WAN), has issued new options, according to a filing with the SEC. The software company offers its clients solutions like data backup, data recovery and centralized storage.

Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Silver Peak Systems was founded in 2004 and works with large enterprise customers like AT&T and Google.

Companies: Silver Peak Systems

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

OpenDNS, a provider of internet security, has closed a $4.5 million round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners participated in the round.

Based in San Francisco, the free Domain Name System (DNS) service provides individuals, schools and businesses with phishing protection, parental controls and typo corrections for misspelled URLs. OpenDNS also operates a web site called the Phish Tank, which allows users to submit suspected phishing sites. Earlier this month, the firm announced that it has identified more than 1 million phishing links.

Founded in 2005, OpenDNS generates revenue from ads and first raised $2.5 million from CNET founder Halsey Minor in 2005.

Companies: CNET, Greylock Partners, OpenDNS, Phish Tank, Sequoia Capital

People: Halsey Minor

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Despite a good chunk of the newest applications pulling features from existing applications, there is still an enormous amount of interest in app development that will continue for the foreseeable future, according to a number of venture capital investors. The ideas were kicked around by a panel of investors at the GigaOm Mobilize conference in San Francisco today.

Applications have evolved as a low-cost way for entrepreneurs to experiment and test the startup waters with their own company. In an age where an app developed by two or three people can turn into a $10 million exit, there’s a significant amount of interest in both standalone and derivative app development from both fresh entrepreneurs and venture capital investors, said Timothy Chang, Principal with Norwest Venture Partners and one of the panelists.

“And there’s no question it’ll keep snowballing,” said panelist Matt Murphy, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. ”Everybody’s just so excited that one or two people can develop whatever they want.”

While returns haven’t grown — likely a result of thrifty consumers in the recession — the number of companies popping up has actually grown, Murphy said. The amount of funding hasn’t grown either, and companies are receiving less funding across the board, Murphy said.

But because apps are a hit-driven business, there will probably be a number of large companies that have distribution power emerging in the near future, Chang said. It’s difficult for smaller app developers to market their apps in the Apple App Store, Android Marketplace and other app ecosystems because of the sheer number of apps on those platforms.

“When there are new distribution landscapes, distribution of content is god almighty,” he said. “And the companies that can synthesize distribution as a muscle crop up, those are the holy grail things to fight for — when you have distribution power that’s almost impossible to replicate.”

Tags: apps, funding, GigaOm Mobilize, Mobilize, Venture Capital

Companies: Bluerun Ventures, Gigaom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Norwest Venture Partners, Red Point Ventures, Shasta Ventures

People: Jonathan Ebinger, Matt Murphy, Rob Coneybeer, Scott Raney, Timothy Chang

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More