venture capital

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.

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.

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.

News Byte

Social Startup MindMixer Raises $4 Million

Mike Isaac in Social on May 1 at 3:00 am PT

MindMixer, an Omaha, Neb.-based startup focused on community organization and local movements, announced on Wednesday that it raised $4 million in a series B funding round. Nelnet led the round, with participation from existing investors Dundee Venture Capital and Optimas Group. The company plans to use the new capital to hire additional developers and continue to scale up its network.

News Byte

Led by Andreessen Horowitz, Payments Startup Dwolla Raises $16.5 Million

Mike Isaac in Commerce on April 30 at 10:02 am PT

Payments startup Dwolla announced Tuesday it raised a $16.5 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with AH partner Scott Weiss to join Dwolla’s board. Former investors USV, Thrive and Village Ventures also participated in the round. Dwolla has built its own payments network, circumventing the usual fees associated with ACH networks (long used by credit card companies), charging 25 cents per money transfer.

News Byte

Opinion-Sharing App Startup Polar Raises $1.2 Million

Mike Isaac in Social on February 26 at 10:11 am PT

Polar, an app made for sharing opinions and polling your friends, announced a new funding round of $1.2 million today, and released a new version of the application, now available for download in Apple’s App Store. Investors in the round include Jerry Yang at AME Cloud Ventures (formerly of Yahoo, of course), John Lilly at Greylock Partners, Maynard Webb from Webb Investment Network, Ash Patel at Morado Ventures, Sam Pullara (formerly of Twitter) and others.

News Byte

Shopping Analytics Startup Euclid Snags $17.3 Million

Mike Isaac in Commerce on February 21 at 10:06 am PT

Euclid Elements, a startup focused on helping brick-and-mortar retailers track shopping habits with in-store sensors, has raised $17.3 million in a series B venture round, the company announced Thursday. The round was led by Benchmark Capital; NEA, Harrison Metal, and Novel TMT Ventures also participated.

News Byte

Social Sports Startup Bluefields Scores $1 Million

Mike Isaac in Social on February 15 at 9:46 am PT

Bluefields, the social network that links sports players together for easier communication between teams and leagues, announced Friday it had raised a $1 million seed round. Contributors include Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund, Facebook Europe executive Christian Hernandez, Elliot Loh (formerly of Yammer), and a number of other angels and seed fund contributors. The startup also exited its private beta on Friday, opening itself up to more potential users.