Today’s funding announcements include companies focused on buying ads, building and analyzing apps:

Adaptly brings in $2M more for consolidated ad buys: The New York-based startup has closed a first round of funding from First Round Capital, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, Charles River Ventures, Lerer Ventures and others, AdAge reports. The company also raised $700K in seed funding last October. Founded by a Northwestern University student during his senior year, the company allows brands to purchase ads across social networks in a single media buy. The company also offers real-time insights and auto-optimization to clients.

Metabar raises $1M for easy browser-based apps: The startup based in Russia has raised funding from Russian seed-stage VC Runa Capital to help users develop browser-based apps without the need for any programming or development skills. The software, which has been in beta since last fall, is used by hundreds of Russian web sites today.

Localytics grabs $2.5M for mobile app analytics: The TechStars: Boston 2009 alum has closed a first round of funding led by Launchpad Venture Group and New York Angels. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the company currently provides analytics to enterprise-level customers, but Localytics plans to use the latest funding in part to expand to mid-market publishers. The startup works with companies including New Corp., Turner Broadcasting, Bluefly, Rue La La and Skype.

Concur invests $40M in Cleartrip: Concur Technologies, a Washington-based maker of expense management software, has invested $40M for a minority stake in Cleartrip, an online travel site based in India. The deal includes a strategic marketing partnership. Cleartrip, which allows users to plan flights, hotels and trains for a trip, previously raised at least $18M from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sherpalo Ventures and The Mahindra Group.

VideoSurf gets $16M for online video discovery: The developer of a technology that helps users search for and discover relevant videos has raised a third round of funding from Israeli VC Pitango Venture Capital and others, peHUB reports. Based in San Mateo, the company was founded in 2006 and was recently awarded a patent for its computer vision technology. VideoSurf reaches more than 20M unique users per month, 12M of whom visit its own web site.

Companies: Adaptly, Charles River Ventures, cleartrip, Concur Technologies, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, First Round Capital, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Launchpad Venture Group, Lerer Ventures, Localytics, Metabar, New York Angels, Runa Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, The Mahindra Group

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Today’s funding announcements include software to help businesses with social networks, employee safety and shopping advice:

Gigya raises $6M for social network integration: The software maker has raised equity and securities in its third round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded by Israeli developers in 2006, the company helps businesses like ABC, ESPN and Reuters integrate their sites with social networks. Gigya, which last raised $11M in 2008, is backed by investors including DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, First Round Capital and Mayfield Fund.

ZoomSafer brings in $1.1M to keep employees safe behind the wheel: The developer of risk management software has raised funding from White Birch Capital and SugarOak Holdings to prevent employees from using mobile phones while driving. Based in Reston, Virginia, the company offers one solution that automatically prevents fleet drivers from emailing, texting or browsing while driving.

MyBuys snags $20M for personalized online shopping: The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has raised a third round of funding led by Rho Ventures with participation from Lightspeed Ventures and Palomar Ventures. The company provides more than 300 clients in the online retail space with its product recommendation technology, which combines a shopper’s behavior with algorithms to make relevant purchase recommendations.

Bubbles & Beyond gets $1.7M for intelligent fluids: The Leipzig, Germany-based company has raised a second round of funding from LBBW Venture Capital, S-Beteiligungen, Hightech-Gruenderfonds and KfW to grow its presence internationally. Founded in 2006, the company develops customized intelligent fluids which have applications in the industrial, cosmetic and medical industries. Products on the market today can be used for graffiti removal and building preservation.

Companies: Benchmark Capital, Bubbles & Beyond, Dag Ventures, First Round Capital, Gigya, Hightech-Gruenderfonds, KfW, LBBW Venture Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Mybuys, Palomar Ventures, Rho Ventures, S-Beteiligungen, SugarOak Holdings, White Birch Capital, ZoomSafer

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Today’s funding announcements include web sites that aggregate energy use, social media news and pop music stories:

Earth Aid brings in $4M to lower energy bills: The Washington, D.C.-based company has raised a first round of funding led by Point Judith Capital for its home energy management service, the company announced today. The web-based platform lets users monitor utility usage and spend without the need for new hardware or software, and the company rewards users when they save energy.

Storify gets $2M for social media-based news stories: The aggregation site has raised a first round of funding from Khosla Ventures. Co-founded by a former journalist, the site lets users pull content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites together into a single story. Launched in September, the San Francisco-based startup’s stories have already been viewed more than 4.5M times.

Popdust grabs $1M for pop music news coverage: The publisher of original music content has raised a first round of funding led by Lerer Media Ventures to accelerate growth of the site. Based in New York, Popdust produces news with a focus on mainstream artists.

Mobestream raises $1.75M to consolidate your loyalty cards: The developer of Key Ring, a free smart phone app, has raised a first round of funding from Austin Ventures to store all of a customer’s loyalty cards in a single place. The Dallas-based company plans to hire ten new employees with the funding.

Companies: Austin Ventures, Earth Aid, Key Ring, Khosla Ventures, Lerer Media Ventures, Mobestream, Point Judith Capital, Popdust, Storify

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Path, a startup with an unusual take on mobile photosharing, just announced that it has raised $8.65 million in its first round of institutional funding.

Path was co-founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, former Facebook executive Dave Morin, and Dustin Mierau, so it’s no surprise that the company enlisted high-profile backers — prestigious venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (which has been making a big push to invest in social networking startups) and Index Ventures.

San Francisco-based Path calls its iOS app a “personal network”, because it’s supposed to help you interact with you family members and close friends, not the looser connections found on Facebook. (In fact, you can’t include more than 50 people in your network.) Path allows you to share photos and videos, then see who’s looking at a photo at a given moment, and also signal how a photo makes you feel.

In addition to announcing the funding, Path also said that more than 2 million moments (read: photos and videos) have been shared on the app. And it’s unveiling a feature that makes it possible to share content with friends who don’t have the Path app — you email your connections directly through.

Path previously raised $2.5 million from Index, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, and a number of angel investors. Kleiner’s Chi-Hua Chien and an Index’s Mike Volpi are joining Path’s board of directors, as is Mierau (previously the board was just Morin and Fanning).

Tags: photosharing

Companies: Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Path

People: Chi Hua Chien, Dave Morin, Dustin Mierau, Mike Volpi, Shawn Fanning

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Path, a startup with an unusual take on mobile photo sharing, just announced that it has raised $8.65 million in its first round of institutional funding.

Path was co-founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, former Facebook executive Dave Morin, and Dustin Mierau, so it’s no surprise that the company enlisted high-profile backers — prestigious venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (which has been making a big push to invest in social networking startups) and Index Ventures.

San Francisco-based Path calls its iOS app a “personal network”, because it’s supposed to help you interact with you family members and close friends, not the looser connections found on Facebook. (In fact, you can’t include more than 50 people in your network.) Path allows you to share photos and videos, then see who’s looking at a photo at a given moment, and also signal how a photo makes you feel.

In addition to announcing the funding, Path also said that more than 2 million moments (read: photos and videos) have been shared on the app. And it’s unveiling a feature that makes it possible to share content with friends who don’t have the Path app — you email your connections directly through.

Path previously raised $2.5 million from Index, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, and a number of angel investors. Kleiner’s Chi-Hua Chien and an Index’s Mike Volpi are joining Path’s board of directors, as is Mierau (previously the board was just Morin and Fanning).

Tags: photosharing

Companies: Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Path

People: Chi Hua Chien, Dave Morin, Dustin Mierau, Mike Volpi, Shawn Fanning

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Today’s funding announcements include two startups geared toward parents:

Plum District brings in $8.5M for family-focused offers: The provider of daily deals for mothers has raised a first round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to expand the site to Portland, Dallas and Raleigh-Durham this year. A sales force of moms source the deals for the San Francisco-based startup, which has grown to more than 20 cities since launching in May.

Korrio grabs $3.3M to make sports leagues more efficient: The Seattle-based startup, founded by a dad involved in youth sports, has raised a first round of funding from Ignition Partners and private investors to develop software for sports leagues. The web site, which launched publicly this month, helps coaches manage registration, payment, rosters and scheduling so that they can concentrate on the competition.

StayClassy raises $1.25M to help charities collect: The San Diego-based startup has raised a first round of funding to help non-profits collect donations online. Since its launch in 2010, the company has helped more than 1,400 organizations accept donations and manage events using its free fundraising software. Looking forward, StayClassy plans to raise a larger funding round in about six months and expects to drive $20M in donations in 2011.

Liquid Robotics gets $18M for swimming vehicles: The company has raised $18M of an expected $23M in its fourth round of funding to develop the Wave Glider, an unmanned maritime vehicle, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif. with a marine base in Hawaii, Liquid Robotics initially developed the Wave Glider to monitor humpback whales. Today, the self-sustaining vehicle, which propels itself using waves and sends data back to shore through satellites, has applications for the government, military and environment.

Companies: Ignition Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Korrio, Liquid Robotics, Plum District, StayClassy

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Adobe may be best known for its media creation software Photoshop and Flash Builder, but it’s now showing more interest in the advertising market and just announced that it has acquired a data startup called Demdex.

Adobe acquired analytics company Omniture for $1.8 billion in September 2009, explaining the move as a way to give Adobe customers the tools they need to make money from their content. By July of last year Adobe said Omniture was already accounting for 10 percent of its revenue.

Demdex’s technology will be added to Adobe’s Omniture products. Demdex pulls audience data from a number of sources, including your website, advertising campaigns, and data sellers, so that advertisers can target their ads to a specific group. In its press release, Adobe emphasized how important this kind of audience targeting is becoming for publishers and advertisers.

“With the addition of Demdex, the Adobe Online Marketing Suite will enable advertisers to be smarter with their advertising spend and publishers to leverage their audience data to generate more revenue,” said Brad Rencher, vice president and general manager of Adobe’s Omniture business unit. “With audience optimization, Adobe is literally changing how online ads are bought and sold.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Demdex last raised $6 million in funding from Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and Genacast Ventures.

Tags: audience targeting, online advertising

Companies: Adobe, Demdex, First Round Capital, Genacast ventures, Shasta Ventures

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AdKeeper, a company promising a way for users to save online ads in a place where they can browse them later, just raised $35 million in a second round of funding.

The round brings New York-based AdKeeper’s total funding to $43 million. That’s an impressive sum for a Web startup that hasn’t even launched its first product yet. (It’s currently in private testing, with plans for a full launch early this year.) But the company has a unique and compelling idea — that we see many online ads at the wrong time, when we’re not interested in clicking a link or don’t have time to fill out a registration form. With AdKeeper, ads will have a “keep” button embedded in them, which users can click to save interesting ads for browsing later.

The company says it has enlisted “the largest group of charter advertisers for any new media launch, ever,” including Allstate, Ally Bank, AT&T, Best Buy, CBS, Ford, Gap, General Mills, InterContinental Hotels Group, JetBlue, Kia Motors, Kmart, Kraft Foods, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Sara Lee, Sears, Showtime, The Advertising Council, The Home Depot, Unilever, and Warner Bros.

Chief executive Scott Kurnit’s background and connections are probably attractive for investors, too. He founded the company that became About.com, and when I interviewed him in December, he offered an ambitious vision for how AdKeeper might transform the way we measure advertising, where the amount of times an ad has been “kept” might become as important to advertisers as views and clicks.

The new funding was led by Oak Investment Partners. Previous investors DCM, True Ventures, Spark Capital, and First Round Capital also contributed to the round.

Tags: keepable ads, online ads, online advertising

Companies: AdKeeper, DCM, First Round Capital, Oak INvestment Partners, Spark Capital, True Ventures

People: Scott Kurnit

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Mobile analytics firm Flurry raised $15 million in a third round of funding as it expands its reach.

The San Francisco company operates an analytics service that is used in thousands of iPhone and Android apps. It also runs AppCircle, a recommendation platform that helps game developers spread their games broadly by suggesting apps the user might like. The two services work well together, since the analytics tell Flurry what is on the user’s phone, and the recommendation engine makes suggestions based on what it knows about what’s on the user’s phone.

Flurry’s new round suggest things are going well for the company and for mobile apps on the iPhone and Android.

The round was led by Menlo Ventures with participation from existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, InterWest, First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures. Sonja Hoel Perkins, managing director at Menlo Ventures, will join Flurry’s board.

Flurry will use the money to expand the reach of its products and beef up sales and marketing. In November, Flurry measured 5 billion anonymous user sessions from over 100 million unique devices. To date, Flurry has raised more than $29 million. More than 35,000 companies use Flurry in 60,000 iPhone and Android apps. Flurry has 23 employees.

Rivals include Google AdMob, Tapjoy, Scoreloop and OpenFeint.

Companies: Flurry

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Monetate, a provider of website testing and ad targeting services, announced today that it has raised $5.1 million in its first round of funding.

Targeted advertising seems to be the hot trend now. It can become a bit of a logistical nightmare to figure out which ads are “good” and which ones aren’t when the attention span of web surfers is so short.

Monetate lets companies field test their ads and figure out which ones work best. The web-based service lets its users add a line of java to their site that transmits data on clicks and advertising effectiveness to the Monetate platform. The service catalogs all that information and then tells its users which ads work best and which ones need improvement. The business-facing part of the service is an analytics suite and dashboard that lets marketers launch targeted advertising campaigns quickly.

The Philadelphia, Penn.-based company was founded in 2008 and has around 30 employees. It became cash-flow positive in 2009 and provides its services to retail websites like Urban Outfitters and The Sports Authority. It raised money through an earlier seed funding round, but wouldn’t disclose how much. The most recent round of funding was led by First Round Capital and Floodgate Fund.

Tags: advertising, marketing, targeted advertising

Companies: First Round Capital, Floodgate Fund, Monetate, The Sports Authority, Urban outfitters

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