RRE Ventures

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.

American Express Continues Push Into Mobile Payments With Investment in Payfone

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on April 12, 2011 at 5:00 pm PT

Two weeks after launching an all-new digital payments platform called Serve, American Express is doubling its efforts in the emerging space with an investment in Payfone, a mobile-payments provider.

On Deck, Which Helps Small Businesses Get Capital, Lands Some of Its Own

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on January 27, 2011 at 4:50 am PT

On Deck Capital, which helps small businesses aggregate their financial information to help them get the loans they need, lands $15 million in a funding round led by SAP Capital.

With 500-Shareholder Concerns Gone, Will Facebook Make Big Acquisitions?

Liz Gannes in Social on January 7, 2011 at 1:14 pm PT

Now that Facebook is giving itself permission to have 500 or more shareholders, given it expects to go public next year, the company’s acquisitions team may get the go-ahead in 2011 to pursue larger and more complicated deals.

Mark Zuckerberg Really, Really Wanted to Work With Sam Lessin

Peter Kafka in Media on November 2, 2010 at 10:19 am PT

Facebook paid around $20 million for Drop.io, just so it could shut down the service and hire founder Sam Lessin–a deal that’s not terribly unusual. What is unusual: Lessin’s old Harvard classmate Mark Zuckerberg funded the purchase with precious Facebook shares.

Facebook Won't Spend Much Bread on Hot Potato

Peter Kafka in Media on July 28, 2010 at 8:08 am PT

Another “buy them instead of hiring them” deal: Facebook is about to pick up Hot Potato, a start-up that specializes in organizing chats about “real time” events. The transaction hasn’t closed yet, but the social network is set to pay something in the $10 million to $15 million range for the company, people familiar with the deal tell me. That will mean a modest return for the investor consortium that put $1.4 million into the firm last year, but it will still be a return.

Big Name VCs Beg Start-ups: Please, Take Our Money!

Peter Kafka in Media on July 7, 2010 at 7:04 am PT

Can’t raise money for your start-up? Maybe you’re doing something wrong. Here’s a gaggle of prominent VCs and angels begging to fund you.

Former Forbes.com Publisher Jim Spanfeller Has VC Money; New Sites on the Way

Peter Kafka in Media on June 29, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Former Forbes.com publisher Jim Spanfeller has a new gig: A venture-backed Web publishing start-up. Spanfeller Media Group, which plans to launch a series of new sites, is close to finishing a funding round that I’m told will total around $2 million. Backers include RRE Ventures, Greenhill SAVP, SoftBank and Lerer Media Ventures.