Posts Tagged ‘venture capital’

Brian Wong never imagined he would become the world’s youngest venture-funded entrepreneur when he founded Kiip in 2010. Nineteen years old and newly laid off from Digg, Wong was in a plane when he noticed that the other passengers were happily playing games on their smartphones. Seeing a potentially “huge market for advertising” through games on mobile devices, Wong decided to create a rewards system for gamers. Eighteen months later, the mobile app dispenses 5 rewards every second from brands like Pepsi and Best Buy, and Wong is building a brand of his own.

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Pinterest has raised $100 million in a round of funding led by Japanese company Rakuten, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, and other angel investors.  The goal is to use the funds to help improve Pinterest’s service and continue to attract new users.

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Evernote, the company known for its notetaking and archiving apps, announced a $70 million Series D investment led by Meritech Capital and CBC Capital at a $1 billion valuation.

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They might have the golden touch, but even the top tech investors on Forbes’ 2012 Midas List have regrets. In a five-part video series, Forbes takes a look inside the minds of Founders Fund cofounder Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook; and LinkedIn cofounder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman.

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Social networks may start out in basements or dorm rooms, but it takes millions of dollars to get them out. Today the Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced a Small Business Investment Company capital investment program to help startups get seed funding from venture capital firms.

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In Facebook Deal, Board Was All But Out of Picture (The Wall Street Journal)
On the morning of Sunday, April 8, Facebook Inc.’s youthful chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, alerted his board of directors that he intended to buy Instagram, the hot photo-sharing service. It was the first the board heard of what, later that day, would become Facebook’s largest acquisition ever, according to several people familiar with the matter. AllFacebook Zuckerberg negotiated with his Instagram counterpart down from an original $2 billion offer, asking Systrom whether he thought Facebook could one day be worth more than $200 billion, roughly the size of Google. Systrom agreed to the one percent or roughly $1 billion in stock. SocialTimes Normally a deal like this takes several days, if not weeks, to complete, and usually involves more lawyers and bankers than were present during the negotiations. Gizmodo It was a bold strategy, and one that smacks of the kind of approach a small start-up might take. It’s not, however, the way most people might expect a multi-million dollar public organization to conduct business. TechCrunch This just in: According to multiple sources close to the company, Facebook is eying an IPO on May 17th — depending on whether the SEC agrees that all the reams of paperwork (including those concerning its recent acquisition of Instagram) are in order. PRNewser The Ad Age Digital Conference continued Wednesday with a presentation from David Fischer, Facebook’s VP of business and marketing partnerships, whose presentation could be boiled down to this: “Your brand needs an always-on strategy.” Read more

Kaptur has raised $2 million from early stage venture capital firms and angel investors. The photo curating site that loads all your friends’ pictures and status updates from Facebook and Twitter into one album is gearing up for more weddings, baby showers, concerts, and other events with new mobile and tablet apps.

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Path, the Personal Network that recently launched a Smart Journal for mobile devices, might be in the market for another investment.  According to BusinessInsider, multiple sources have confirmed that the company is raising another round of funding.

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Talk about influential.  The social media ranking system Klout has secured approximately $30 million in Series C funding.    According to AllThingsDigital’s sources, the company is now estimated to be worth $200 million.  Kleiner Perkins led the round, along with Institutional Venture Partners, Venrock, Greycroft Partners and ff Venture Capital. Chi-Hua Chien from Kleiner Perkins will join Kleiner’s Bing Gordon, Mayfield’s Allen Morgan and Klout CEO Joe Fernandez on the Klout board of directors.

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If you want a piece of Facebook, Twitter or any number of other pre-IPO companies, you need to come ready to play (and pay). To deal directly with these businesses, you need to wield some serious venture capital money. To pick them up in trading venues such as SecondMarket and SharesPost, you need to be an accredited investor (translation: better than comfortably middle class). Well, there’s another way you can get a piece of these companies: GSV Capital.

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