funding

Why one VC believes there's more to social media

Facebook keeps getting bigger. Twitter isn't going away any time soon. Even the companies built to take advantage of these companies' social-media wiring--the Groupons and Zyngas of the world--have gotten huge in their own right. It's ubiquitous, and arguably mature.

So why does Sand Hill Road fixture Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, which has spent nearly four decades investing in companies like Amazon, Google, Intel, and AOL, think it's the right time to start a fund specifically geared toward new investments in social media?

The venture firm, which had a Java-specific fund in the 1990s and launched … Read more

Evernote secures $20 million in investment round

Evernote has secured $20 million in a Series C round of financing, the company announced today.

Sequoia Capital led the funding round, according to Evernote--a service that enables people to create, edit, and synchronize data across multiple devices and platforms. Morgenthaler Ventures and DoCoMo Capital, which previously invested in Evernote, also participated in the round. In addition, Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha will join Evernote's board of directors.

Getting Sequoia Capital's support is no small achievement. The venture capital firm is one of the most successful in the tech world. The company has invested in Apple, Cisco Systems, … Read more

ThreatMetrix raises $12.1 million to expand anti-fraud service

Anti-fraud services company ThreatMetrix announced today it is getting $12.1 million in Series C financing from Tenaya Capital, formerly Lehman Brothers Ventures.

ThreatMetrix will use the money for general operating capital and expansion of its device-profiling business, said Chief Executive Reed Taussig.

The Los Altos, Calif.-based company offers e-commerce companies a cloud-based service that helps authenticate customers to prevent account hijacking and fraudulent transactions on banking sites, Web retail stores, social networks, and dating and gaming sites.

ThreatMetrix creates profiles of devices accessing Web sites and services without the need for personally identifiable information from consumers and combines … Read more

Craigslist urged to shut erotic-services ads worldwide

A hundred organizations fighting sex trafficking have joined the chorus of voices asking Craigslist to remove its erotic services section worldwide as the company has in the U.S.

In a letter sent Tuesday (PDF) to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark, human rights groups throughout the world thanked the company for bringing down its adult and erotic ads in the U.S. But the groups said that these services, where trafficked children and women are sold for sex, remain open in 250 cities worldwide. And in not making the same improvements globally, the groups told Craigslist that … Read more

Former IBM exec gets jail time for insider trading scheme

Former IBM executive Robert Moffat on Monday was sentenced to six months in jail for his part in a major insider trading scheme, according to news reports.

Moffat was also reportedly ordered in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to pay a fine of $50,000 after serving his jail time, which is due to begin on June 11 of 2011.

In March, the former IBM executive pleaded guilty to revealing insider information about IBM, Lenovo, and Advanced Micro Devices to New Castle Funds consultant Danielle Chiesi, with whom he allegedly claimed an intimate relationship, according to a Bloomberg report.… Read more

The 404 648: Where we know exactly where you are (podcast)

Jill Schlesinger, aka Aunt Jill of CBS MoneyMoney, fills in for Justin, who is waiting for the cable guy. I believe they told him they'd come sometime between today and next week between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. (We all know how the cable guy loves to be on time).

On today's show, we talk about Facebook Places, a location-based check-in service. Say you're at a fantastic restaurant. You'll be able to check in with your mobile phone with GPS, leave comments about the food and service, tag your friends who … Read more

U.S. contracts fund next-gen satellite imagery

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, an arm of the U.S. government that oversees satellite imagery collection for military and intelligence work, has awarded two satellite imagery companies contracts worth more than $3 billion each.

The two 10-year contracts are part of a program called EnhancedView to produce a new generation of satellite imagery. GeoEye, based in Dulles, Va., was awarded $3.8 billion, and DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colo., was awarded $3.55 billion.

Each contract is paid annually, subject to congressional approval, and can be canceled annually. The long-term funding paves the way for development of next-generation satellites with … Read more

Open-source Lustre gets supercomputing nod

A new start-up called Whamcloud is coming out of stealth mode Wednesday with $10 million in private funding and a notion to disrupt the often academic world of supercomputing by leveraging the Lustre open-source project.

According to CEO Brent Gorda, the company is targeting the need for high-performance storage solutions based on the popular combination of Linux and Lustre for application and data storage environments. The company plans to offer support and services initially, with an eye toward a turnkey supercomputing setup with hardware and software components, in the future.

For those less familiar with supercomputing technologies, Lustre is a … Read more

Foursquare poised to get new VC funding

According to numerous sources close to the situation, Foursquare is in the final stages of striking a funding deal with the very venture firm--Andreessen Horowitz--that had publicly dissed the hot social-location site and walked away from earlier talks.

The deal is likely to be completed and announced by early next week, at a valuation of about $80 million, barring unusual hiccups.

"Light at the end of a very long and very twisty tunnel," joked one source familiar with the situation.

Indeed, the wrapping-up of what has been a very convoluted funding process comes after a series of missteps … Read more