Funding roundup - week ending 1/17/14

Sonian, Nextbit, Turn, Pingboard, Contently, Jun Group, Disco, EquityMetrix, Chrome River, SuVolta

Seed stage

The Dodo, a new site dedicated to animal news, launched with $2 million in seed funding from Lerer Ventures.

First Opinion, an app for mothers to connect with a doctor who is also a mom, raised $1.2 million from Greylock, Yuri Milner, Felicis Ventures, 500 Startups and others. 

On-demand laundry service Washio raised a $2.25 million seed round led by Pejman Mar Ventures. Sherpa Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Three Six Zero Group, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, Ron Burkle, Nas, Anthony Saleh, Larry Rudolph, Jay Brown, Zod Nazem, Troy Carter, Scooter Braun, Yael Cohen, Tom Ryan, and Frank Cooper also participated. 

P2P lending company Lending Works raised £3.5 million in funding, led by David Kyte. Other investors include Max Ashton,, Alex Rogers, and Keith Saldanha.

Bright*Sun, a U.K.-based fintech startup, raised $200,000 in angel funding from London Venture Partners.

Culinary Agents, a platform for culinary jobs and networking, raised a $500,000 round of seed funding from RRE Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and angels.

Cloud computing future enabler Cloutex closed a seed round of $600,000 from United Partners, SmartCap and EstBan business angels.

Mindie, an iPhone app for creating music videos, raised $1.2 million from SV Angel, Lower Case Ventures, David Tisch, Dave Morin and Slow Ventures, Nick D’Aloisio, Betaworks, and celebrity managers.

Tales2Go, an audio story subscription service, received a $750,000 seed round of funding from Maryland Venture Fund and NewSchools Venture Fund.

Pingboard, a social company directory, closed a $1.25 million seed round that was led by Silverton Partners.

Early stage

Confer, a cyber security network, came out of stealth with $8 million in funding from Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.

Nextbit, a stealth startup that seems to have something to do with mobile, raised $18 million in a round led by Accel Partners and Google Ventures.

Amplify, the Los Angeles-based accelerator, raised its second fund of just over $8 million from backersthat  include Accel, Greycroft, Siemer Ventures, Deep Fork Capital, Karlin Ventures, Jarl Mohn, Ron Burkle,  Jim Wiatt, Ed Wilson, Ben Silverman, Rick Barry,, Rob Glaser, Joe Lewis, and David Baron.

Venga, a customer management system for restaurants, closed a $1 million Series A round led by Militello Capital, along with Think Food Group, Big Red Ventures, Bill and Pat Anton, Philip Cummins, Gus DiMillo, Brad Zions, Alicia Aloe, Jodie McLean, and various angels.

FarmLogs, which makes an agricultural app that helps farmers manage their farm to increase yield, raised a $4 million Series A round of financing led by Drive Capital. Huron River Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Hyde Park Angels also participated.

OpenSesame, a provider of online training courses, closed $8 million in Series A funding led by Partech Ventures.

Keen, a company focused on the printing market, raised $1.625 million from 500 Startups, IDG-Accel, and angels.

Oyster, which offers a monthly subcription service for e-books, raised $14 million from Highland Capital Partners, with Founders Fund also participating.

Visually, a marketplace for visual content, raised $8.1 million in Series A financing. Crosslink Ventures led the round with participation from Correlation Ventures, SoftTechVC, 500 Startups, Giza Ventures, Quest Ventures and Kapor Capital.

Volusion, a provider of ecommerce solutions for online businesses, secured $35 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.

ChargeBee, a provider of automated Subscription Billing Platform, raised a Series-A funding of $800,000 from Accel Partners. 

ClearSky Data, which provides hosted infrastructure to mobile operators, closed a $12 million funding round from Highland Capital Partners and General Catalyst.

Social video platform Jun Group raised $2.5 million in venture debt financing from Western Technology Investment.

Disco, which makes e-discovery software that helps lawyers find evidence faster, raised a $2 million Series A investment from LiveOak Venture Partners. 

EquityMetrix, a tech-enabled service provider of big data solutions for the oil and gas industry, received a $5 million growth investment from Peterson Partners.

ResponseTek, a provider of enterprise Customer Experience Management (CEM) software solutions, raised a $6 million round from Beedie Capital Partners and GrowthWorks.

Intellinote, a first cloud-based Workforce Operations Management (WOM) solution, raised a $4.3 million Series A funding round led by investors Grotech Ventures and Boulder Ventures.

SNUPI Technologies, a provider of sensor networks and home health monitoring services, closed $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Washington Research Foundation Capital, with participation from Madrona Venture Group and unnamed investors.

Teespring, a startup that allows anyone to produce and distribute their own custom T-shirts, raised $20 million from Andreessen Horowitz.

Evocalize, a customer conversation platform, raised $3 million in Series A Financing from Madrona Venture Group. 

Late stage

Food delivery company Delivery Hero raised a Series E round financing of $88 million with Insight Venture Partners leading the round.

LiveIntent, which provides tools for advertising in email newsletters and alerts, raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Bullpen Capital with Alpha Capital, Valor Capital, and Brazilian investors VR participating. 

China South City Holdings, a developer and operator of integrated logistics and trade centers in China, received an investment worth about $1.5 billion HKD ($195 million) from Chinese Internet giant Tencent.

VC firm ff Venture Capital raised $52 million for two funds, ff Rose and its sister fund ff Rose Innovate. 

Nutanix, a provider of datacenter infrastructure solutions, closed its $101 million Series D financing co-led by Riverwood Capital and SAP Ventures. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Greenspring Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Battery Ventures also participated

WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting company, raised $15 million in funding from North Bridge Growth Equity.

In-the-wild app testing uTest closed a $43 Million Series E round of funding, led by Goldman Sachs. QuestMark Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Mass Ventures, Egan-Managed Capital and Mesco also participated. 

Invoca, a provider of cloud-based inbound call marketing technology, closed $20 million in Series C funding led by Accel Partners, with participation from Upfront Ventures and Rincon Venture Partners.

Turn, a marketing software and analytics platform, raised $80 million in Series E funding led by "two of the world's largest investment firms." ClearBridge Investments, Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Northport Investments, Pine River Capital Management, Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital, Shasta Ventures and Focus Ventures also participated.

Chinese app store Wandoujia raised $120 million led by SoftBank, with participation from DCM and Innovation Works Development Fund.

Contently, a marketplace that connects journalists with publishers, raised $9 million in Series B funding from Sigma Prime, Sigma West, Lightbank, Contour Ventures and David Lerner. 

Chrome River, which provides expense management and supplier invoice processing software, raised $17 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures and included First Analysis and Argentum.

SuVolta, a developer of scalable semiconductor technologies for low-power, high-performance integrated circuits, secured $10.6 million in funding from Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, August Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Northgate Capital and DAG Ventures.

Trustpilot, a review community for online shoppers, raised $25 million in Series C funding. The funding round was led by DFJ Esprit in London and DFJ in Menlo Park, with participation from Index Ventures, Northzone and Seed Capital.

Upland Software, a cloud provider of enterprise work management applications, raised $15 million from  Activant Capital.

Sonian, a provider of cloud-powered email archiving solutions, raised $8 million in Series C funding from OpenView Venture Partners, Summerhill Venture Partners and Prism Venture Partners. 

Restaurant-tech startup Quandoo raised $8 million in funding from DN Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures.

Twice, an online consignment shop for women’s clothing, raised $18.5 million led by Jeff Jordan, with participation from IA Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Lerer Ventures, WTI, Mike Lazerow, Joe Greenstein and Maria Thomas.

WePay, a payments company for platform businesses, closed a $15 million Series C funding round led by Phil Purcell, Max Levchin, Webb Investment Network, Raymond Tonsing, Highland Capital Partners, August Capital and Ignition Partners also participated.

Salesfusion, a marketing automation software provider, raised $8.25 million in financing led by Noro-Moseley Partners, BLH Venture Partners and Hallett Capital.