Funding roundup - week ending 04/15/11

Ronny Kerr · April 15, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/196a

Over $350 million in venture capital and angel investments for companies from seed to growth

Seed

Bamboom Labs, provider of tech to allow consumers access to live TV over the Internet, raised $4.5 million of seed funding led by FirstMark Capital.

Flud, a personalized mobile news reader for iPhone and iPad, raised $1 million in seed funding from several notable angel investors.

 

Metabar, a free platform that automates the process of creating browser-based applications raised a $1 million seed round from Runa Capital.

Early-stage

BookingBug, an online scheduling, booking, reservation and appointment system for business, raised $350,000 from a small group of angels.

Cloudwords, connecting translation vendors with content owners, raised $3 million in Series A funding from several Salesforce executives and founders, including CEO Marc Benioff, founding CTO Dave Moellenhoff, current CTO Craig Weissman.

Industrial lighting solution provider Digital Lumens closed a $10 million Series B round that was raised from all of the company’s previous investors: Black Coral Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, and Stata Venture Partners.

Instructure, provider of an open-source learning management system (LMS) called Canvas, closed $8 million in a Series B round of financing led by OpenView.

Tiny Speck, developer of a massively multiplayer online game called Glitch, secured a $10.7 million Series B round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Accel Partners, the company's original investors.

 

OpenBuildings raised $2 million in a Series A round from BlueRun Ventures and Index Ventures.

Scoutmob, a location-based group deals company, secured a first round of funding for $1.5 million.

 

Stealth startup Project Slice secured a $3.8 million round of funding to continue working on simplifying online shopping, according to an SEC filing.

 

Stylistpick, a personalized women's fashion e-commerce site,  secured £5 million ($8 million) in a Series A round co-led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

Txteagle, a text-based advertising platform, raised an $8.5 million Series A round led by Spark Capital.

Zencoder, a video encoding and transcoding SaaS provider, raised $2 million in funding from a long list of investors.

Late-stage

Currensee, an alternative investment service that gives investors unique access to the world currency markets, secured $4 million as Series C financing from North Bridge Venture Partners, Egan-Managed Capital and Vernon & Park Capital.

KupiVIP.ru, a Russian-based private online shopping club, raised $55 million from new and old investors.

Chinese group buying site Lashou closed a $110 million Series C funding round led by Mileston Capital, with participation from Richemont’s affiliates Reinet Fund SCA FIS, Remgro Limited, and previous investors.

Social shopping service Lockerz closed $30 million of a planned $45 million round, according to an SEC filing.

MarketShare, a cross-media analytics company for marketers around the world, raised a $32 million follow-on investment by Elevation Partners.

French game publisher Mediastay secured a €15 million ($21.5 million) investment from Iris Capital and Idinvest Partners (formerly AGF Private Equity).


Mobile payments proviedr Payfone closed a $19 million funding round from American Express, the largest contributor, with participation from Verizon Investments Inc. (assisted by Verizon Ventures) and others.

Sugar Inc., a media company for women, completed a $15 million later-stage round of financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) with participation from previous investor Sequoia Capital.

Video search engine VideoSurf raised $16 million in Series C financing.

Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs

Cloudwords, Inc.

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

Based in San Francisco and backed by individuals who gave birth to cloud computing, including Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, Cloudwords is poised to revolutionize the translation industry. Our team is comprised of individuals who have worked at Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Yahoo, Cisco Systems and various translation vendors– and all of us are passionate about empowering customers with tools that make their lives easier.

Cloudwords is not a translation vendor or Localization Service Provider (LSP); rather, it is a Translation Management Platform that enables the customer to select and interact with the translation vendor, and centrally manage all translation projects.

At Cloudwords, we believe that the innovative way to buy translation services begins with transparency. The current approach pits buyer and vendor against each other. The vendor holds all of the information and the buyer becomes suspicious, often times resulting in both parties being dissatisfied with the experience.

Cloudwords levels the playing field through total transparency. Buyers and vendors share all the same information and we make sure that they are getting exactly what they want most in the transaction. Buyers want knowledge of how prices between vendors compare, and a central place to view and manage all of their translation projects. Vendors want a steady flow of project opportunities. Cloudwords delivers to both.

In essence, Cloudwords is the internet's first translation specific marketplace designed to help the customer navigate the proverbial "black box" of translation. In order to join our network, a translation vendor must have at least 5 customer references and be accredited and in good standing with LISA and GALA, the leading industry associations. Once vendors are in the system and active, they will be rated/evaluated by the client at the close of each project. These feedback scores are what will drive business to the best vendors, as clients will review vendor profiles prior to selecting a partner.

Cloudwords makes managing this process easy and fast. Through our innovative platform we deliver visibility, control, and centralized project management. Finally!

 

OpenBuildings, Inc.

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

www.OpenBuildings.com is a community-driven & openly editable encyclopedia of buildings from around the world. This database of historic, contemporary or conceptual architecture exists on multiple digital platforms; including a mobile application that enables the user to find, learn about and share nearby buildings of architectural merit.

Our aim is to collaboratively archive the world's built environment for future generations: to inspire architects, educate students, inform tourists and empower professionals.

Website - http://www.OpenBuildings.com

Mobile app - http://bit.ly/obldg

Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/OpenBuildings

Twitter page - http://twitter.com/OpenBuildings