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April 06 2012

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500 Startups Raising New $50M Fund, Names 4 New Partners, With 250+ Investments To Date
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It's a big day for 500 Startups -- you know, the seed-stage accelerator and capital fund founded by rabble rouser and geek on a plane, Dave McClure. Back in July 2010, McClure filed for the accelerator's first fund, raising $30 million to begin officially investing in startups under the new venture capital fund. Today, we've learned via SEC regulatory filing that round two is officially on the books, and 500 Startups is going bigger for its second round, raising $50 million. McClure and company are also today announcing an expansion of the team, as Paul Singh and Christen O'Brien have been promoted to partners. Singh will continue to lead investments, running the accelerator program, and acting as head Data/Metrics guru, while O'Brien continues on her role as head of business development, leading events and conferences, like Geeks On A Plane, Warm Gun, etc. Bedy Yang and George Kellerman have also joined as venture partners.
Tags: Startups TC Venture Venture Capital 500 startups Dave McClure

April 05 2012

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Publishers Sue As Boundless Learning Grabs $8M For An Open Alternative To Textbooks
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It seems it's a big news day for eBooks and eTextbooks. Google is winding down its eBook service for indie publishers, while Apple and top publishers are the subjects of domestic and European probes into eBook price-fixing. On top of that, Boston-based educational startup Boundless Learning, which is trying to offer students an open alternative to textbooks (and even eTextbooks), is itself on the receiving end of litigation, thanks to three top textbook publishers. But a little litigation isn't slowing down Boundless, as it today announced that it has closed an $8 million series A round, led by Venrock -- the VC firm that began as the original venture arm of the Rockefeller family. The sizable chunk of pre-launch funding adds to the $1.7 million seed round Boundless raised last year from Nextview, Founder Collective, Kepha, and SV Angel.
Tags: Startups TC Venture Venture Capital open educational resources Boundless Learning edtech digital textbooks ebook etextbook
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With JOBS Act Becoming Law, Crowdfunding Platforms Look To Create Self-Regulatory Body
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Today, President Obama signs the JOBS Act into law, legalizing crowdfunding in startups by non-accredited investors, so that anyone and their mother can invest. The new law stipulates that entrepreneurs can now raise money from any and all, however, startups are limited to $1 million per year, and must stick to portals approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. What's more, the legislation dispenses with the 500-shareholder rule, which put a limit on the number of shareholders a company was allowed before registering with the SEC (and going public). The new law gives high-growth companies a longer grace period, or on-ramp, leading up to IPOs, and lifts some of the one-size-fits all regulation that likely has been hampering the IPO market. While this is a big win for startups, it puts significant pressure on the crowdfunding market to self-regulate -- which is risky. That's why 13 equity and debt crowdfunding platforms and insiders have come together to form a leadership group to bring attention to the need -- really, requirement -- for the industry to develop effective self-regulation, best practices, and investor protection.
Tags: ecommerce Social Startups TC Venture Venture Capital Crowdfunding JOBS Act
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Ready, Set, Crowdfund: President Obama To Sign JOBS Act Tomorrow
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On March 22nd, a slightly modified "Jumpstart Our Business Startups (or JOBS) Act" was approved by the Senate in a 73-26 vote. Last week, the House of Representatives, too, showed its support for the bill, giving it the green light in its own 380 to 41 vote. Tomorrow, President Obama is expected to officially sign the bill into law (from what we're hearing, that could be as early as 11am PT), representing the final step for legislation that will, among other things, legalize crowdfunding in startups by non-accredited investors. In other words, now even your mom can invest in your startup.
Tags: ecommerce Startups TC Venture Venture Capital president obama Crowdfunding JOBS Act

April 04 2012

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Mogreet Nabs $4.1M For An Easy Way To Share Rich Media To Any Mobile Device
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Mogreet, a Los Angeles-based mobile video marketing startup, is today announcing that it has raised $4.1 million in strategic capital. The round was led by Black Diamond Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including DFJ Frontier, Ascend Ventures, Bryant Park Ventures, and Draper Associates. The new infusion of capital brings the startup's total funding to $14.1 million.
Tags: apps Mobile Startups TC Venture Venture Capital Mogreet
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With $25M From Benchmark And Larry Summers Advising, Can Minerva Build An Online Ivy?
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Well, we've said it before: Technology is changing education. It's flipping the classroom, bringing instructional videos to the masses, and dragging online higher education into legitimacy. Investors have begun to hear the call, as was evidenced today when Benchmark Capital made its largest seed investment to date -- $25 million -- in a startup/university called The Minerva Project. Sure, it's not quite the $41 million Color raised pre-launch, but it's certainly head-turning for an education startup. Hopefully it can avoid the rough early start and crushing expectations that come along with big seed rounds. To help it take flight, the startup is announcing that Larry Summers, former Harvard President and U.S. Secretary of Treasury will chair its advisory board.
Tags: Mobile Startups TC Venture Venture Capital benchmark capital edtech Larry Summers online education online gaming The Minerva Project

April 03 2012

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Jonathan Heiliger: From Yahoo’s ISP To Facebook’s Infrastructure To Being A North Bridge VC
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If you're familiar with Jonathan Heiliger's work, it's probably because you used Facebook sometime in the last five years. He was the person in charge of keeping the site online as it grew from 35 million to more than 800 million users. Or, maybe you've encountered his efforts over the past decade and half when you logged online -- because he helped build some of the core technologies and businesses that ran sites like Yahoo, starting fresh out of high school in the 90s. Next time you hear about him, it might also be because of the next hot company that blows up in Silicon Valley. But this time he'll be one of its investors. He's joining North Bridge Venture Partners today, a firm that has quietly distinguished itself by focusing on infrastructure and enterprise startups over the last two decades.
Tags: Enterprise Social Startups TC Venture
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RR Donnelly Invests $2.5M In CoffeeTable To Bring Retail Catalogs Into The Tablet Age
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RR Donnelly isn't a name you see very often in TechCrunch, but companies don't survive for nearly 150 years without having one eye trained on the future. With 2011 revenues at an estimated $10.6 billion, the company is one of the world's largest commercial printers. The printing giant has been stepping up its digital investments of late, and today announced that it has invested $2.5 million in Real Value Corporation, the makers of iPad shopping app, CoffeeTable.
Tags: apps Mobile Startups TC Venture Venture Capital CoffeeTable

February 28 2012

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Groupon Acqhires Uptake To Build Out Palo Alto Office
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Groupon is acquiring travel startup Uptake. Liz Gannes at AllThingsD broke the news. We spoke to a source with knowledge of the deal who confirmed the details of the AllThingsD report. The purchase price was apparently between $10 and $20 million.
Tags: Startups TC Venture

February 23 2012

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Pseudonymous Mobile Messaging App Vibe Acquired By Betaworks
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Back during the heyday of #OccupyWallStreet  in New York City (before winter dispersed most of the protestors there), an iPhone app called Vibe became popular among that community. It allows people to post messages, photos, and videos within a geo-fenced radius—everything from a "whisper" (visible only to people within 165 feet) to a "bellow" (visible worldwide). The messages can be set to expire and users can post with a pseudonym or link the app to their Twitter account. Vibe is the creation of Hazem Sayed, and his two-person startup was acquired by betaworks last December. Betaworks never announced the deal, but I've been able to confirm it. Sayed and at least one other person who worked on Vibe now work at betaworks. The deal was likely in the low six figures, with betaworks now owning a majority of Vibe.
Tags: Apps Venture
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