venture capital

News Byte

Social AI Startup Parakweet Raises $2 Million

Mike Isaac in Social on June 18 at 5:00 am PT

Parakweet, an artificial-intelligence startup focused on extracting meaning from social media conversations, announced a $2 million seed round on Tuesday. Participants include Scott Banister, Alan Braverman, David Jeske and others.

Accel Launches Second $100 Million Big Data Fund

Arik Hesseldahl in News on June 17 at 9:15 pm PT

Delivering on the Big Data promise.

Seven Questions for Silicon Valley Superlawyer Gordy Davidson

Arik Hesseldahl in News on June 10 at 8:00 am PT

Soon to step down from his position as chairman of Fenwick & West.

News Byte

Social Startup Urturn Raises $13.4 Million, Launches Mobile App

Mike Isaac in Social on May 22 at 4:00 am PT

Urturn, the London-based social startup focused heavily on the music and entertainment industry, announced Wednesday that it raised $13.4 million in venture capital. The round was led by Balderton Capital, which contributed more than $10 million, with participation from Debiopharm Group. The startup also launched an iOS mobile app, and is working to incorporate more personalized actions created by select developers through Urturn’s API, currently in private beta.

News Byte

Orchestrate.io Closes $3 Million Seed Round

Mike Isaac in Enterprise on May 21 at 4:30 am PT

API service startup Orchestrate.io announced on Tuesday that it had closed a $3 million seed investment round. The round was led by True Ventures, with participation from FrontLine Ventures and Resonant Venture Partners. The funds will be used for hiring, as well as for expanding infrastructure to work with multiple partners across the world in the coming year.

Voices

Fab Raising at Least $250 Million

Spencer E. Ante, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in Commerce on May 20 at 4:53 pm PT

Online design retailer Fab Inc. is in advanced talks to raise $250 million to $300 million in venture capital in a deal that would value the fast-growing but unprofitable company at $1 billion not including the new capital, people familiar with the matter said.

News Byte

Discovery Startup Newsle Raises $1.65 Million

Mike Isaac in Social on May 20 at 10:43 am PT

Newsle, a news discovery startup, announced Monday that it had raised a $1.65 million Series A round of venture capital. The round was led by American City Business Journals, a subsidiary of Advance Publications, with participation from Maveron, DFJ, Transmedia Capital, and angels investors Launny Steffens and Rockwell Schnabel. Newsle lets users find published articles that mention their contacts or people they’ve chosen to follow on the service.

Tableau and Marketo Create Whopping Piles of Money With IPO Debuts

Arik Hesseldahl in News on May 17 at 2:44 pm PT

NEA’s $29 million stake in Tableau is now worth $955 million and change.

News Byte

Jelly, Biz Stone’s Startup, Raises a Round (With a Little Help From Friends)

Mike Isaac in Mobile on May 16 at 11:39 am PT

Jelly, the stealthy startup founded by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, announced Thursday that the company just closed its Series A round of venture capital. The round was led by Spark Capital; Bijan Sabet — an early Twitter investor — will join Jelly’s board. Other noteworthy investors include Jack Dorsey, U2’s Bono, Reid Hoffman, Steven Johnson, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman, Roya Mahboob, Greg Yaitanes and former vice president Al Gore.