What you need to know - 04/11/11

Venture capital up, up, up, according to Dow Jones; Entrepreneur forming YC Reject for YC rejects

U.S. venture funds raised $7.7 billion in the first quarter of 2011, almost double the $3.9 billion collected in the first quarter of 2010 and the highest first-quarter total since 2001, according to Dow Jones LP Source.

Social fundraising site FriendFund created an iPad fund for VatorNews' Faith Merino, and the company kicked it off by chipping in $30. Shameless media coverage follows.

Level 3 Communications, an international provider of fiber-based communications services, will acquire Global Crossing, a global IP, Ethernet, data center and video solutions provider, for approximately $3 billion in stock.

Mobile developers Pushlife have been acquired by Google for a reported $25 million.

Google announced the launch of Umbono, a new technology incubator, which will be based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Text messaging app WhatsApp has raised $8 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and others, according to unnamed sources.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Allan Teruel is organizing YC Reject, a project still deep in its infancy but designed to be a fallback option for five or so startups that didn’t make the cut for Y Combinator. The weekly dinners, the talks from successful and experienced founders, the investor and press-loaded demo days, even the funding--Teruel wants YC Reject to emulate everything great about the real YC.