funding

The Social Gaming Network, parent company of social-networking applications that do exactly what the name implies they would, has reason to celebrate.

The company has netted $15 million in first-round funding from Greylock Partners, the Founders Fund, Columbia Partners, and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

Yes, that's $15 million for the people responsible for the Warbook, Jetman, and Super Snake applications clunking up your friends' Facebook profiles.

It makes sense. Gaming applications have proven to be some of the most popular apps on social-networking developer platforms like Facebook and MySpace.com, and veteran entrepreneurs have taken note. The Social Gaming … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission capped a subsidy program that helps fund cell phone coverage in rural areas.

In a 3-2 vote on Thursday, the FCC said it would limit payments to wireless carriers seeking funds from the Universal Service Fund to help subsidize the cost of providing cell phone service in rural areas. The USF, which is supported by a tax on long-distance and regular subscriber line charges paid by wireless, Internet, and traditional phone customers, has been temporarily capped after the program paid nearly $1.12 billion last year to phone companies operating in rural areas. In 2001, the … Read more

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers on Thursday announced the expected creation of a fund dedicated to growing green-technology firms.

The Silicon Valley venture capital firm said $500 million out of a larger $1.2 billion fund will go to "growth stage" green-technology firms that need additional capital to commercialize their work.

Kleiner Perkins established a $100 million green-technology fund in 2006 for start-up seed funding. This Green Growth Fund will make investments of $10 million to $50 million to ramp up existing companies, Kleiner Perkins executives told The Wall Street Journal.

The structure of the fund reflects one … Read more

Meebo, which continues to release new Web-based instant message and chat applications, is announcing tonight that it has closed a $25 million funding round led by Jafco Ventures. Jafco's investment portfolio includes other online communications plays, such as classifieds utility Oodle, Exchange competitor PostPath, and Web content tracker Attributor. It looks like a good club for Meebo to join.

Also participating in the funding is Time Warner Investments, and KTB Ventures. Time Warner Investments is a strategic investing arm for Time Warner; this investment will give Meebo hooks into major media properties. KTB's portfolio has a Far East … Read more

Intrigued to learn that Microsoft has been testing its ad-supported version of Microsoft Works here in the U.S., I wanted to see it for myself.

After work on Friday, I headed to Costco and to Best Buy, both of which carried Sony laptops that included the product, known as Works SE (Sponsored Edition). As Microsoft said, the product carries largely "house ads" that pitch Microsoft products such as Office. The ads themselves are small, taking up just about a 2-inch square in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

Clicking on the ad didn't appear to … Read more

Updated 4:15 p.m. with details on the countries in which Works SE is being offered.

After years of exploring the matter, Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries.

Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet. Although the program has the ability to update its set of ads online, today it runs mostly ads for Microsoft and a few partners, all of which ship with the product itself.

Works SE (which stands for Sponsored Edition) is free to PC makers, … Read more

There are seemingly more "livestreaming" services out there than people actually using them, but that hasn't stopped Ustream.tv from raising $11.1 million in Series A funding. The cash comes from venture firm DCM, as well as existing investors Labrador Ventures and The Band of Angels.

To be fair, Ustream has pulled away from the pack a bit: it's the streaming service of choice for some high-profile live Web events like the Digg Town Hall.

With the new cash, Ustream will focus on product development and "meet(ing) growing market demand for an interactive-broadcasting … Read more

Marketcetera just announced a $4 million series A round of venture funding with Shasta Ventures and Jack Selby, managing director and co-founder of Clarium Capital. There's something highly appropriate in a hedge fund investing in a software company set up to help hedge funds (and others).

Marketcetera, as I've opined before, is one of the coolest open-source companies on this planet. It provides an open-source trading platform for hedge funds and others to process and deliver trades.

Marketcetera can start with algorithmic trades for hedge funds, but that's just the beginning. As Dana at ZDNet suggests, open … Read more

For the last four months, Howard Chau has been developing a mobile application that's designed to alert people to their next calendar appointment, factoring in data like the person's physical location and traffic conditions en route to a meeting.

In the next two weeks, Chau plans to submit the GPS-based application, called Mappily, to Google in the hopes of winning its Android Developer Challenge, a developer contest with $10 million in total prize money. Because Chau only stands to win tens of thousands of dollars in the first round of the challenge, the money would just be gravy.… Read more