funding

If there had been an early-stage incubator at Harvard when Mark Zuckerberg was starting Facebook, the world's largest social-networking company might not be based in Silicon Valley today.

There was no such investment fund back in 2004, but today, there is. In an announcement this morning, Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) launched the Experiment Fund, a new early-stage seed fund that is being backed by New Enterprise Associates, one of the world's largest venture capital firms.

According to the fund's Web site, its mission is to be "a bridge between America's … Read more

Fitbit, a maker of a digital health and fitness devices, announced today it has raised $12 million in Series C funding.

The round of funding, which will be used to fund growth, was led by existing partners Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, and Felicis Ventures.

"This funding will help us accelerate the hiring of the best hardware and software engineers, designers, product managers and marketers," Fitbit CEO and co-founder James Park said in a statement. "This is the perfect time for passionate and smart people to join us as we create devices and services that improve … Read more

Kwaga, a French startup that fixes shortcomings of today's e-mail, has raised $1.55 million in first-round funding.

The company's flagship service today is called WriteThat.name. It reads your e-mail and automatically enters contact information into your address book, creating new entries and updating existing ones.

It works today only with Google Apps and Gmail, but the funding will help the company bring it to Microsoft Outlook, too. That service is in beta testing right now.

The funds also will help the company integrate with major customer-relations management (CRM) products.

The funding came from private investors and … Read more

Venture capital funding was up last year to a 10-year high. So is it a bubble? And if so, is it still expanding or ready to burst? Read on.

During the fourth quarter of 2011, venture capitalists spent $7.6 billion investing in companies around the world, according to venture capital database CB Insights. All told, investors offered up $30.6 billion last year in over 3,000 deals, making it the biggest investment year in a decade. In 2010, venture capitalists plunked $23.7 billion into nearly 2,800 deals.

Investors dropped $2.5 billion into online companies last … Read more

Unruly Media, a video-promotion start-up that just botched a Google Chrome ad campaign, has raised $25 million in first-round funding.

Among investors in the London-based company are Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers, and the British Growth Fund. The money will be used "to accelerate international growth and cement Unruly's position as the global leader in this fast-growing area," the company said today.

Unruly helps its clients promote video advertisements that, if all goes according to plan, spread virally. Among those it's been involved in are Evian's roller babies and Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" … Read more

Web audio host SoundCloud announced a new funding round today led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

SoundCloud didn't reveal the size of the funding round, but TechCrunch reported the amount to be $50 million, giving the company a $200 million valuation.

In addition, Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker will take an observer seat on the SoundCloud board, the company said in a statement. GGV Capital also participated in the round, which is expected to help the company grow more quickly.

"SoundCloud has seen exponential growth this year in terms of users and greatly evolved our product offerings,&… Read more

Here's an upbeat tidbit to end the year: 2011 is on track to the biggest year in venture capital deals in a decade.

Big years make for daring bets, and for this year I've chose a dozen influential investors to single out for their role in fueling startups of all sorts.

If the final quarter shapes up as it looks like it will, venture capital deals will total $30 billion for the year, a 25-percent jump from 2010, according to Anand Sanwal, whose firm, CB Insights, tracks investment activity among VCs and some big angel investors.

"I … Read more

TaskRabbit, the San Francisco-based startup that lets people outsource errands, announced today it has raised $17.8 million in Series B financing.

The new round was led by LightSpeed Venture Partners and included contributions from TaskRabbit's existing partners, as well as new investors Allen & Company and The Tornante Company, an investment firm led by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

The new round of financing comes seven months after TaskRabbit raised $5 million in Series A financing, bringing its total financing to date at $22.8 million. Since that round in May, the company says it has seen its … Read more

There's plenty of live video broadcasting platforms to choose on the Web these days, but today we're chatting with one of the pioneers.

Justin Kan is one of the co-founders of Justin.TV, and he drops by our studio today for a full episode about the origins of life streaming and how the site paved the road to Justin's new project for live video gaming, TwitchTV.

We'll also talk to Justin about his participation in Y Combinator, a start-up incubator that helps green entrepreneurs through the first three months of genesis.

The boot camp gives founders the seed funding they need for general living expenses, allowing them to focus on the business idea. YC also guides them through the media pitching process and how to grab the attention of venture capitalists and seed investors.

Some of the headline-grabbing companies to grow from Y Combinator include Scribd, Loopt, Grubwithus, and Justin.TV itself.

Tune in to hear about how TwitchTV is bringing competitive gaming to a much larger audience, not to mention a few tips on what it takes to earn a spot in the next Y Combinator batch!… Read more