Today’s funding announcements include companies that provide advertising text, online ticketing and scientific hair products:

BoostCTR lands $1.6M for copywriter community: The ad service has raised a round of seed funding from investors including 500 Startups, Javelin Venture Partners and Founder Collective. The startup helps enterprise advertisers optimize ad performance by allowing a group of copywriters to produce the text for ads. The San Francisco-based company claims that its clients on average see a 30 percent lift in click-through rates and sales volume by using the service.

ShowClix brings in $1.7M for ticketing service: The Pittsburgh, Penn.-based startup has raised a second round of funding led by Swallow Point Ventures to increase sales and brand awareness of its online event ticketing business. The company, which says it had a 650 percent increase in ticket sales last year, works with more than 1,800 clients to offer online and telephone ticket sales, box office management and promotion of events.

Living proof gets $16M for frizz-free hair: The developer of innovative beauty products has raised a second round of funding from Piper Jaffray and Polaris Venture Partners. Founded by Polaris and an MIT biomedical scientist, the company uses new scientific materials and technologies to develop its hair care products.

BridgePoint Medical grabs $9.1M for interventional cardiology tech: The Minneapolis, Minn.-based biotech startup has raised a third round of funding from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Polaris Venture Partners and Foundation Medical Partners, peHUB reports. The company is developing a treatment for chronic total occlusion, which occurs in coronary arteries and other blood vessels when they become obstructed by plaques.

Companies: 500 Startups, BoostCTR, BridgePoint Medical, Foundation Medical Partners, Founder Collective, Javelin Venture Partners, Living proof, New Enterprise Associates, Piper Jaffray, Polaris Venture Partners, ShowClix, Swallow Point Ventures

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Qwiki, a startup that describes itself as delivering a new “information experience,” just announced that it has raised $8 million in its first institutional round of funding.

I wrote about Qwiki earlier this month, when the funding was revealed through a regulatory filing, although the filing said the Palo Alto, Calif. startup had only raised $5 million of the round. After the article was published, co-founder and chief executive Doug Imbruce hinted that there were some big names involved in the round. And now he’s revealed that the biggest investor was Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Saverin, of course, recently saw a big boost to his profile thanks to his largely sympathetic portrayal in the movie The Social Network. Saverin was pushed out from any active role in Facebook, but he settled with Facebook for an undisclosed amount and remains one of the company’s largest shareholders — his shares are worth billions of dollars now. After the movie came out, Saverin published a column in CNBC that was largely noncommittal about Facebook (presumably because he signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of his settlement) but went on and on about the importance of entrepreneurship.

Also investing in the round are YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, Juniper Networks co-founder Pradeep Sindhu, Lerer Media Ventures, Tugboat Ventures, and Contour Venture Partners. (I can’t help but note that although Saverin and Karim were both involved in hugely popular Web companies, they were both overshadowed by their co-founders.)

So what is Qwiki? The goal is to deliver a rich, multimedia overview of topics like “San Francisco” and “Eduardo Saverin,” one that pulls together text, images, video, and more from sources like Wikipedia. Imbruce has compared the experience to how computers deliver information in science fiction movies. The site is still in an invite-only alpha test, but Imbruce has said the company is also working on mobile versions, as well as personalized features.

The company has now raised a total of $9.5 million. Saverin and Pejman Nozad (whose firm Amidzad is also an investor in VentureBeat) are joining Qwiki’s board as non-voting observers.

Tags: information experience

Companies: Contour Venture Partners, Lerer Media Ventures, Qwiki, Tugboat Ventures

People: Eduardo Saverin, Jawed Karim, Pejman Nozad, Pradeep Sindhu

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Ifbyphone, a provider of web-based services that interact with phone calls, has raised $8 million in its second round of funding from Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures and Spring Mill Ventures.

The company has a web-based service that lets its users track and automate phone calls through a public cloud server. That means companies with call centers can route calls to a remote server and have them interact with with a number of applications, like a virtual receptionist. Developers can build web services to work with any existing software and build on all the features they need to control every phase of a call with only a few clicks of a mouse.

Ifbyphone recently snapped up Cloudvox to get access to its open application programming interfaces (APIs) that let companies that use call centers develop applications for their software. Cloudvox basically provided web developers with everything they needed to build applications that could route and interact with telephone calls.

The basic services include anything from a virtual receptionist, to a voicemail box, to the ability to register a vote by phone. Users can pay more to gain access to more in-depth analytics and interactive voice applications. The pricing ranges anywhere from $50 to $75 a month.

The Skokie, Ill-based company raised $9.1 million in an earlier round from Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures and Bluecrest Capital Finance. The most recent round brings its funding to $17.1 million.

[Photo: Esparta]

Tags: cloud computing, phone, telephony

Companies: Cloudvox, Ifbyphone

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New financial regulations proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will fall most heavily on super angels, a lawyer who specializes in the industry told VentureBeat this week.

Angel investors are wealthy individuals who put money in startups, often providing a company’s first funding. Super angels, unlike regular angels, also manage other people’s startup investments — putting them in a different class from regulators’ perspectives.

Jeff Bloom, partner and chair of the venture capital and private equity fund formation group at tech law firm Fenwick & West, said that although most of the new rules will not have much impact on venture-capital financings overall, the fastest-growing segment of the venture capital industry is definitely taking notice.

Higher regulatory risk is just another reason for super angels to back off their torrid pace of investments, as higher startup valuations threaten to diminish their rewards.

“Angel investors that were considering raising a discretionary fund [could now choose to] remain independent or to invest in a club format instead,” said Bloom.

Under the new proposed rules, venture-capital funds will for the first time be subject to public information reporting requirements. That’s something that has never before been mandated and which will demand funds adapt their back office functions in order to handle the day-to-day work of meeting those benchmarks.

Super angel funds, which typically have been able to run with very small or completely outsourced back-office teams, will feel a definite sting from those new rules.

Similarly, Bloom added that the additional reporting requirements likely to be required by the SEC will place a burden on newer, smaller funds.

“[They] will have to manage more administrative overhead, [which is] very difficult in a smaller fund,” said Bloom. “So perhaps some relief after public comments will help on that front.”

Still, the SEC clearly did its homework, said Bloom, because although new rules requiring registration and disclosure will affect chunks of the VC industry, the majority of the new proposed regulations probably will not have a material negative impact on the venture-capital “ecosystem” as a whole.

With the SEC still defining the venture-capital fund exemption from the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, most traditional venture capital funds will remain exempt from registration under the proposed rules if adopted in their current form.

“The SEC has developed rules that work well for historical practices in the industry and is soliciting very specific commentary for purposes of making the exemption conform as closely as possible with current industry standard practices. That is a real positive sign that they want to ‘get it right,’” he added.

Tags: angel investors, regulation, SEC, super angels

Companies: Fenwick & West

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Venture capital investment in Silicon Valley continues to decrease overall even as angel investors rush into high-value investments in tech stars like Twitter and Facebook, according to a study released today of capital raised in the third quarter.

The Fenwick & West Venture Capital Barometer analyzed the valuations and terms of venture financings for 107 Silicon Valley-based technology and life science companies that reported raising capital during the third quarter.

It found that while liquidity, usually in the form of mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings, has been improving, the overall amount of venture investing is continuing its recent decline as potential investors wait for a more sustainable VC model to appear.

“The likely reason for this is that the venture model is currently out of equilibrium,” said Barry Kramer, a partner of Fenwick & West and co-author of the survey.

“Even though venture funds have reduced their investments in companies, they are still investing more than is being invested in venture funds,” he added. “In other words, over the past couple years, venture funds have had a significantly greater outflow of funds than they have had inflow of new capital. This is not sustainable.”

Kramer said that the valuations at which venture capitalists invest continues to be “relatively reasonable and stable,” but that it is likely valuations will start to decline if the amount of venture investment continues to decrease.

During the third quarter of 2010, up rounds (in which the price per share at which a company sells its stock has increased since its prior financing round) exceeded down rounds (in which the price per share at which a company sells its stock has decreased since its prior financing round). 52 percent of rounds were up round, 30 percent were down rounds, and 18 percent were flat.

Last quarter was the fifth consecutive quarter in which up rounds exceeded down rounds.

The survey also found that the usual “hotspots” continue to be popular, with the best-performing industries in the quarter (from a valuation perspective) being internet/digital media and, to a lesser extent, life sciences. But even the amount of funding being poured into those areas continues a downward slide, the data showed.

But, said Kramer, “There is hope, that with liquidity increasing, investments in venture funds will become more appealing, and venture capitalists will be able to raise more money, making more money available for entrepreneurial opportunities.”

Tags: angel investing, Venture Capital

Companies: Facebook, Fenwick & West, Twitter

People: Barry Kramer

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Social shopping startup Fashism just announced that it has raised an angel round of funding led by A Grade Investments, the fund created by actor/Twitter super-user Ashton Kutcher.

The New York startup offers a way to get fashion feedback before making a purchase. For example, if you’re not sure whether a jacket is a good buy, you can try it on, take a photo, ask how it looks on how, then read comments from other Fashism users. Fashism says its site has more than 40,000 registered users on its site, while its iPhone application has been downloaded 50,000 times.

The company’s press release doesn’t disclose the size of the round, but The New York Times reports that it was around $1 million. Other inestors include actress Demi Moore (Kutcher’s wife), Nina Garcia of Marie Claire magazine, Ron Conway’s SV Angel, High Line Venture Partners (Shana Fisher), NV Investments, Vast Ventures, and Rick Webb. Foursquare chief executive Dennis Crowley and designer Steven Alan are also investors.

Back in July, Jalak Jobanputra of the New York City Investment Fund wrote a guest column for VentureBeat arguing that the fashion industry is finally seeing some tech innovation. In the post, he highlighted Fashism, along with competitor Go Try It On.

Tags: fashion, social shopping

Companies: Fashism, Grade A Investments, Highline Venture Partners, NV Investments, SV Angel, Vast Ventures

People: Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Dennis Crowley, Nina Garcia, Rick Webb, Ron Conway, Steven Alan

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Visual product search company Superfish has received $4 million in third round funding, the startup told VentureBeat Thursday, an infusion it says it will use to muscle up its market position and focus on developing its “visual DNA” search technology.

The San Mateo, Calif., company was in stealth research mode for several years before rolling out its first prototype, Window Shopper, in April. The Firefox and Internet Explorer browser add-on allows users to search for images instead of text to find a broad range of similar products across thousands of sites simultaneously. At this time, the company doesn’t offer add-ons for other browsers like Google Chrome, Safari.

“The Superfish visual search system can take any image as a search query, analyze and convert that image into a series of vectors, and compare those vectors against our index of over 100 million images to find identical or similar matches within seconds,” Head of Product Joe Dew told VentureBeat.

Since its launch last spring, Window Shopper has grown to over 1 million active users and continues to expand across all sectors as it competes with other similar visual shopping sites like Spezify.com and Google acquisition Like.com

However, the company said Thursday it has an edge in the market because it uses fundamentally different components to search over 60 million products across a product index that includes Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and Walmart.

“Superfish is changing the way search is done by adding a visual component,” said Adi Pinhas, co-founder and President. “This funding will enable Superfish to explore new avenues for visual search and updated ways for both consumers and brands to use the power of visual search to improve their search experience.”

The funding round was led by original investors who “doubled down,” including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures, Individuals’ Venture Fund and Xenia Venture Capital. The company had earlier raised $5.3 million in January of 2009.

Tags: extensions, Firefox, Venture Capital, visual search

Companies: Amazon, Best Buy, Dfj Tamir Fishman Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, eBay, Individuals’ Venture Fund, Like.com, Macy’s, Spezify, Superfish, Target, Walmart, Xenia Venture Capital

People: adi pinhas, joe dew

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GainSpain, a company that makes low-power Wi-Fi chips, has raised $5 million of an expected $20 million in equity, according to a filing with the SEC. In August, the San Jose-based startup released a Wi-Fi module that can be embedded into home appliances, allowing users to operate devices like refrigerators and dishwashers from a laptop or cell phone.

Founded in 2006, GainSpan has raised more than $35 million to date from Opus Capital, Intel Capital, New Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners and Sigma Partners.

Companies: Gainspan, Intel Capital, New Venture Partners, Opus Capital, OVP Venture Partners, Sigma Partners

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Carbonflow, a developer of software applications for carbon reduction projects, has closed a $4.2 million second round of funding. The round was led by existing investor OVP Venture Partners with participation from Clean Pacific Ventures and @Ventures.

The San Francisco-based company plans to use this latest funding to expand sales around the world and release new products. Carbonflow customers use the browser-based project dashboard to manage carbon trading projects across multiple stakeholders.

Founded in 2006, the company previously raised $3.9 million in 2008.

Companies: @Ventures, CarbonFlow, Clean Pacific Ventures, OVP Venture Partners

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RGB Networks, a provider of video processing technology, has raised $20 million in a fifth round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC.

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company develops chips that provide cable and telco operators with solutions for delivery of video to multiple devices. RGB works with clients in more than 20 countries.

Founded in 2003, the company last raised $20 million in 2008 from Institutional Venture Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Focus Ventures, Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. RGB has raised more than $75 million in funding to date.

Companies: Accel Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Focus Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Rgb Networks

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