Intel Capital

SilkRoad, Another HR Software Service in the Cloud, Lands $35 Million

Arik Hesseldahl in News on May 14 at 12:18 pm PT

Can the market support another cloud-based HR software provider? SilkRoad investors certainly think so.

CrowdStar Lands $11.5 Million to Support Its Shift From Social to Mobile Gaming

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 2 at 12:00 pm PT

CrowdStar has landed $11.5 million in fresh capital to help it complete its transformation from developing social games to mobile games.

eBay Is the Most Recent Bay Area Transplant to Seek Access to Seattle’s Talent Pool

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 12 at 6:00 am PT

The e-commerce giant has joined a growing list of companies willing to brave the rain in order to gain access to a deep pool of technology engineers in Seattle.

News Byte

Brazilian Social Games Company Pays Zynga to Settle Copyright Issues

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 6, 2011 at 9:29 am PT

San Francisco-based Zynga, which is on track to go public next week, has settled a lawsuit against Vostu, a social-game maker in Brazil that Zynga accused of copyright infringement. In a joint statement, the two said: “As part of the settlement, Vostu made a monetary payment to Zynga and made some changes to four of its games.” Terms were not disclosed. Vostu claims to be the largest social game company in Brazil and is backed by Accel Partners, Tiger Technology Global Management, Intel Capital and General Catalyst Partners.

MasterCard Makes Its First Mobile Payments Investment in mFoundry

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on November 30, 2011 at 9:03 pm PT

MasterCard has made a strategic investment in seven-year-old mobile banking start-up mFoundry.

News Byte

Intel Launches $100 Million App Fund

Ina Fried in News on November 15, 2011 at 12:43 pm PT

Intel Capital on Tuesday announced a new $100 million AppUp fund aimed at spurring development of programs that run on netbooks, ultrabooks and other consumer laptops. Among the fund’s first investments is a stake in Urban Airship, made as part of that company’s recently closed $15 million funding round.

Why Betaworks Broke Up the Band

Peter Kafka in Media on September 15, 2011 at 7:08 pm PT

Andy Weissman jumps from the incubator/holding company to become a full-time investor at Union Square Ventures. That wasn’t the plan a few months ago.

Voices

Intel Sets $300 Million Fund To Spur “Ultrabooks”

Don Clark, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on August 10, 2011 at 8:16 pm PT

Intel Corp. said its investment arm is allocating $300 million to help encourage innovation around a breed of ultra-thin portable PCs that the chip maker calls Ultrabooks.

Kabam Raises $85 Million to Build the Zynga of Hardcore Gaming

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 26, 2011 at 5:05 am PT

Redwood City, Calif.-based Kabam has quietly been building a sizable social game company only miles away from industry leader Zynga.

Zynga Competitor Crowdstar Raises First Round of Funding. Ever!

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 23, 2011 at 11:00 am PT

CrowdStar has become the fifth-largest social game maker on Facebook without raising a dime of venture capital. Now, as it expands to mobile and moves internationally, it’s raised its first round of $23 million.