News Byte

Sailthru Raises $20 Million to Spread the Gospel of Personalization

New York City-based Sailthru, which makes a software suite that helps media companies and marketers personalize editorial content and marketing messages for individual users, has raised a $20 million Series C investment led by Scale Venture Partners. Benchmark and RRE Ventures were among the other investors who chipped in to the round.

App Advertisers TapCommerce Raise $10 Million

The app boom has led to an app advertising boom, which means VCs are are interested. So is Facebook, which might make things interesting…
iphone_apps

News Byte

Amid Bitcoin Price Volatility, Bitcoin Exchange itBit Launches With Backing From Canaan and RRE

A new bitcoin exchange called itBit is launching today, and is announcing a $3.25 million investment from Canaan Partners, RRE Ventures and Liberty City Ventures. The company is based in Singapore and its target customer base is comprised of institutional investors as well as individual investors who don’t live in the U.S.

BarkBox’s Matt Meeker Has Big Plans for Pet Projects (Q&A)

The man behind a Birchbox for dogs, a BuzzFeed for dog owners and a veterinarian hotline service has lots more ideas.

Google Ventures Leads $17 Million Round in On Deck Capital

A fast-growing startup that uses big data to make small-business loans.

Fetch! BarkBox Raises $5 Million for Doggy Treat Deliveries.

It’s like Birchbox, minus the makeup, plus the chew-toys.

Albumatic Is a Photo-Sharing App With Vine Credentials, and You Might Use It

It’s like Color, or Highlight, except it could work. Perhaps you’ll use it in Austin next month …

On Deck Raises $42 Million to Provide Online Loans to Local Businesses

Institutional Venture Partners led the round, with RRE Ventures, SAP Ventures and First Round Capital also participating.

News Byte

Motivational App Lift Closes $2.5 Million Round

Lift, the personal motivational mobile app that helps users set and achieve goals for themselves, closed a $2.5 million Series A investment round, the company announced Tuesday. The round was led by Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital, who will join the board of the six-person start-up, reuniting with former Twitter board member and co-founder Evan Williams, whose Obvious Corp. has also invested in the company. Also involved in the round are SV Angel, Adam Ludwin from New York VC firm RRE and, appropriately enough, motivational speakers Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss and David Allen.

Quirky Collects $68M for Crowdsourced Gadgets

Why Betaworks Broke Up the Band