Daily roundup Wednesday 11/4/2010

Katie Gatto · November 4, 2010 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1359

Apptio raised $20M; GainSpain $5M; Red Foundry $1.1M; Rocket Ninja $3.5M

Facebook is beginning to make local deals, with its Places service. The location based deals will come in four types: Individual Deals, Friend Deals, Loyalty Deals, and Charity Deals. The deals are available on the newest version of the iPhone app, and at  touch.facebook.com, for Android based mobile phone users.

WordPress has just announced that they have one million mobile users. The company has allowed mobile posting since 2008, when an iPhone app was released. There are currently also apps for BlackBerry and Android based mobile users.

Survey Monkey raised $100 million in debt financing. The round was led by Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.  Other banks involved in the funding included JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Royal Bank of Canada, Webster Bank, N.A., and Zions First National Bank.


Rocket Ninja, a social game company, announced a $3.5 million funding round and moved out of stealth mode. This first round of funding came from a varity of angel investors, and will help the San Francisco-based start up to make 3D games that users can play from within a web browser. The games will be available on Facebook.

Apptio raised $20 million in a round led by Cisco Systems. The company, which make an analytics suite geared towards IT executives, was only in search of  $16.5 million for this round of funding. 

GainSpain, a company founded in 2006, raised $5 million. The company makes low-power Wi-Fi chips. The had expected the raised $20 million in equity. 

Red Foundry raised $1.1 million in its first round funding. The company, based in Chicago, creates a non-code tool for creating mobile apps.


Microsoft launched its Kinect motion controller system, which allows users to play games, with less dependence on a standard controller. The system comes out four years after Nintendo first launched their motion based based controller for the Wii.

AeroScout raised $16 million for a Real-Time Location System. The round was led by Evergreen Venture Partners. Other investors include: Cisco, Greylock Partners, Intel Capital, Menlo Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital and Star Ventures.

H.Bloom, an online floral delivery service, has raised $2.2 million in its seed round. The company offers flower delivery, with a subscription based model.

Support VatorNews by Donating

Read more from our "Trends and news" series

More episodes