Daily funding roundup - March 2, 2016

Blippar raised $54M; Rocksbox bagged $8.7M Series A; Influitive secured $8.2M funding

• goTenna, a device that enables smartphone users to communicate without cell towers, wifi routers or even satellites. The company announced a $7.5 million Series A on Wednesday, led by Walden Venture Capital, along with MentorTech Ventures, BBG Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta. The round also includes Wareness.io, a strategic fund focused on hardware; Kenneth Horowitz, a founder of Cellular One; and Howard Finkelstein, who ran data and telecommunications businesses for John Kluge’s Metromedia Company. WIth this round, goTenna has now raised a total of $9.3 million in venture capital.
  
  
• Influitive, a provider of advocate marketing software, raised an $8.2 million round of funding. The round is an extension on the $30.5 million in Series B the company raised in July of last year, bringing the total round to $38.5 million. The additional financing came from new investorsLeaders Fund and Export Development Canada (EDC), along witrh returning investors includingGeorgian Partners, Relay Ventures, BDC Capital IT Venture Fund and OurCrowd, as well as several angel investors.
  
  
• Zembula, a Portland, Ore.-based rich interactive content platform for enterprise marketers, raised $1.1 million in seed funding. Backers included the Launch Fund, Seven Peaks Ventures and Portland Seed Fund. The company intends to use the funds to continue product innovation and scale essential functions.
  
  
• Malaysia-based automotive portal Carsome raised $2 million in a Series A round led by existing Malaysian investor IdeaRiverRun with participation from IMJ Investment Partners and another existing investor 500 Startups. It will use the majority of this capital to fund expansion into two new markets, Indonesia and Thailand. The rest of it will be funnelled into ramping up marketing efforts to boost its branding, and hire new talent in the operations team.
  
  
• Jobbatical, an Estonian startup that helps travel enthusiasts get technology jobs around the world, raised $2 million (£1.4 million) in a funding round led by LocalGlobe, the venture fund set up by Saul Klein and his father Robin Klein last year, and Union Square Ventures, which has backed the likes of Twitter, SoundCloud, and Funding Circle. Total investment in the company now stands at around $3 million (£2.2 million).
  
  
• Paris-based Augment raised over $3 million in Series A funding from Salesforce Ventures, Jean-François Chianetta, Augment co-founder and chief executive. The round brings the company’s total funding since launch to $4.7 million. Augment is an augmented reality platform that allows users to envision any object in their current environment. Saleforce Ventures is Salesforce’s corporate investment group.
  
  
• Eight, a technology company changing the future of sleep (formerly known as Luna), closed $6 million in seed funding with participation from investors including: Y Combinator, Yunqui Partners, Azure Capital, Cota Capital, Comcast Ventures, Vast Ventures, Stanford University, Galvanize Ventures, Y Combinator partner and Scribd co-founder Jared Friedman, and others. The capital raised will be used to accelerate production, develop new products, and finance growth initiatives.
  
  
• Baltimore, Maryland-based WellDoc has announced a collaboration with LifeScan, a Johnson and Johnson company that makes blood glucose meters. WellDoc also raised an additional $7.5 million from Johnson & Johnson Innovation and other investors, bringing the company’s total funding in its most recent round to $29.5 million. Existing investors include Samsung Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation (GHI) Fund, Adage Capital Management, Excel Venture Management, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Hudson River Capital Partners.
  
  
• Rocksbox Inc ., which sends monthly subscription boxes of jewelry to consumers, raised $8.7 million in Series A funds, VentureWire has learned. New York-based KEC Ventures co-led the round, investing more than it ever has in an early-stage deal, according to Jeff Parkinson, a general partner at the firm. Matrix Partners, a firm that led the seed round $1.5 million for Rocksbox in 2014, was the other co-lead.
  
  
• Blippar raised $54 million in funding to “power the future of visual discovery,” the augmented reality (AR) company announced today. The round was led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the investment fund of the Malaysian government, and comes nearly one year after Blippar raised $45 million last March. Now, with an extra $54 million in its coffers, the company will expand its engineering prowess and presence in San Francisco, with a view towards capturing the imaginations of more users.

If you are interested in being included in our funding roundup, submit your press release or blog post about your financing round to mitos@vator.tv. 

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