What you need to know - 07/13/11

EA buys PopCap for $650 million in cash; Dropbox mulling $200-300 million round?

San Francisco-based Astrid raised a seed round of funding, led by Google Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. Individual investors, such as Jack Herrick, who ran WikiHow and eHow, as well as Nathan Stoll, one of the founders of search engine Aardvark, also participated in the round.

Social rewards and loyalty platform Badgeville raised $12 million in a Series B round of funding led by new investor Norwest Venture Partners and existing investor El Dorado Ventures, with help from Trinity Ventures and Webb Investment Network.

Dropbox, a simple yet powerful file hosting service, is in the process of closing between $200 and $300 million in new venture capital at a $5 to  $10 billion valuation.

Following on the heels of its recently released North Korea app, Fotopedia teamed up with National Geographic Traveler Magazine to release “Above France,” an app that takes an aerial angle on professional photographs of France.

Groupon officially launched Groupon Getaways, offering luxury vacation packages for super cheap rates.

Katango, the new Cafebots, emerged from stealth, launching a new app that automatically organizes Facebook contacts.

Just weeks after making its big public debut on NYSE, Pandora has teamed up with Scion, and has further expanded its relationship with Ford.

Electronic Arts agreed to acquire casual gaming company PopCap Games for approximately $650 million in cash and $100 million in shares.

Scopely, a stealthy startup created by Google Adsense co-founder Eytan Elbaz, is about to raise some money from several investors, including Lerer Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Howard Lindzon, Terri Semel’s Windsor Media, David Cohen, Dave Tisch, Gil Elbaz, and Evan Rifkin.

Scratch Music Group, a music and technology company, closed a $3.3 million round of growth financing led by Contour Venture Partners with additional funding from the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) and angel investors.

Shipwire, provider of outsourced order fulfillment, secured a capital investment from new investors eBay  and Newell Rubbermaid , and joined by existing investor Meakem Becker Venture Capital.

StumbleUpon launched on the iPad so you can take the addicting social Web everywhere you go.

Learn about a unique take on early-stage investing. YL Ventures, which has $30 million under management, wants to invest in startups that could be sold within three years, said Yoav Leitersdorf, a partner at YL Ventures.