Funding roundup - week ending in 12/12/08

Expresso Fitness, Tumblr, SnapMyLife are among companies that raised funds

 Here's a look at some of the funding announcements across the social network, community, video, digital media and advertising sectors.

Expresso Fitness raised $14 million from Sierra Ventures, Physic Ventures, and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, according to The Earth Times. The Sunnyvale, California-based company markets exercise bikes to fitness centers in a virtual way. ExpressoFitnesss offers an upright bike and a recumbent bike. Taking gym equipment one step further, its “tours” and “chases,” are programs that create virtual biking experiences tailored to each user’s goals and interests. Within the tours, exercisers can choose to bike along the California coast or through the Peruvian Mountains.

SnapMyLife raised $5 million from North Bridge Venture Partners and Carmel Ventures, according to PE Hub. The Needham, Massachusetts-based company is a place that lets users snap and share photos, browse through the latest photos, make comments, mark favorites, and build a group of friends to share with regularly.

Tumblr raised $4.5 million from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, according to PE Hub. The New York based company is a social networking and online publishing platform. where users can share text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from their browser, phone, desktop, or email.

RiseSmart raised $3 million from Norwest Venture Partners, according to PE Hub. The Sunnyvale, California-based job site company that offers service to job seekers by providing the right kind of information for that specific position the seeker is looking for.

Anvato raised $2 million from Oxantium Ventures, according to a press release. The Mountain View, California-based company enables content publishers to protect and monetize their content via advertising. This technology scans the Web to extract knowledge about objects, scenes and visual cues from videos to determine whether content has been uploaded to a site without permission.

 World Sports Network raised its first round of institutional funding led by Valhalla Investments, according to PE Hub.The Shanghail-based company is a sports web site operator. The athlete centered website has sports news, stats, and a plethora of other sports related topics.

2080 Media Inc. raised $3 million from Imlay Investments, according to PE Hub. The Atlanta-based company helps customers produce and distribute untelevised live sporting events. The company also announced that  is has acquired PlayOnSports which is a digital media company.

 Roost Inc. raised $8 million from Shasta Ventures, according to Business Wire.The downtown San Francisco-based company is the most comprehensive search engine that offers a consumer search engine for places to live and a technology platform for realtors.

 Emotive Communications raised $6.25 million from the Mayfield Fund, according to a press release. The Los Angeles-based company is the pioneer in developing smart media applications for mobile entertainment.