After a month of gargantuan fundraisers and acquisitions, this week’s list of new financing looks humble. Still, all told, the ten startups here picked up a combined total of $50 million from venture capitalists to fuel their blooming creative endeavors.
C2Call, provider of browser-based VoIP solutions, has raised $2 million in Series A funding from Draper Investment Company, High-Tech Grunderfonds, and Mr. Klaus Wecken, co-founder of KHK Software AG. The Germany startup lets anyone make a call by simply creating a uniquely assigned link that when clicked connects the caller to the recipient, all without any software download or site registration.
Exelate, an open marketplace for audience targeting data and provider of data management tools for publishers, closed a $15 million second round of funding led by Silicon Valley’s Menlo Ventures with participation from Israel’s Carmel Ventures, who led the company’s $4 million Series A round in October 2007. The New York startup offers publishers, networks, and agencies a variety of avenues for tapping into audience data.
PlacePop, a startup that helps businesses with virtual loyalty promotions, closed a $1.4 million round of funding from Affinity Labs founder Chris Michel, Bebo founder Michael Birch, and James Currier and Stan Chudnovsky, Ooga Labs co-founders. The just-launched service says it only takes five minutes to create a business’ loyalty program, which rewards customers for repeated visits (and check-ins).
Rapportive, a Gmail plugin that shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox, raised at least $1 million in seed funding from some prominent angels, including Gmail creator Paul Buchheit, Scott Banister, Jason Calacanis, Gary Vaynerchuk, David Cancel, Dharmesh Shah, Shervin Pishevar, Roy Rodenstein, and more. Based in San Francisco, Rapportive replaces ads in the sidebar with information about your contacts, like photo, occupation, and links to their social network profiles.
Recurly, a startup streamlining the subscription billing process, raised a $1.6 million round of seed funding, led by Polaris Venture partners with participation from others, including Michael Dearing from Harrison Metal, Josh Felser and Dave Samuel from Freestyle Capital, Larry Mohr, Dave McClure (500 Startups), Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant, and more. The San Francisco-based startup, which launched just a year ago, already has 1,300 companies signed up to its service.
Redbeacon, a site where users can search for and schedule local services, raised a $7.4 Series A round of financing from Mayfield Fund and Venrock. Founded in 2008, the San Mateo, CA startup charges small service providers, like plumbers and lawyers, a small fee for finding them customers.
StatSheet, a sports content and stats site, received $1.3 million in its first round of funding, led by Valhalla Partners with participation from IDEA Fund Partners and others. Founded in 2007, the Durham, NC company, which covers college and high school basketball, college football, and NASCAR, lets fans build charts/graphs and analyze data across its database.
StatusNet, an open source microblogging platform, took on additional funding led by New York-based FirstMark Capital and joined by BOLDstart Ventures, iNovia Capital and Montreal Start Up. The Canadian company has now accrued $2.3 million in investments. With StatusNet, businesses can create collaboration and community tools within their private networks.
YouSendIt, a file sharing service, secured a $15 million Series D round of financing from new investor Adams Street Partners and existing investors Emergence Capital, Sigma Partners and Alloy Ventures. Since its founding in 2004, the Campbell, CA company has raised over $50 million. While YouSendIt registers 300,000 new users each month (right now they’re at about 13 million total), the service only draws money from its about 215,000 customers that opt for subscription plans at $9.99/month or more.
Zulily
, a private online store targeting those shopping for apparel and gear for babies and kids, closed a $6 million funding round led by August Capital with participation from return backer Maveron LLC. The Seattle-based startup has raised $10.6 million to date. Like Gilt Groupe, HauteLook, and others, Zulily promises heavily discounted premium goods through its members-only system.
