Knewton the online educational site has raised a healthy $6 million in Series B round of funding. The funding came from Bessemer Partners along with angel investors and returning investors; Accel Partners and First Round Capital. The current funds add to the previous $2.5 million in Series A. The company will use these funds to make its test preparation service better for consumers. Knewton has got a pretty interactive method learning method and it’s not surprising it got the investors tipping in the cash in tough economic times.
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Glam Media, the network for women (that has been making some news lately) has raised $10 million in another round of funding, totaling their funds to $124 million so far. The current funding came from Mizuho Venture Capital (Japan) and Germany’s Hubert Burda Media. The investment coming from the two isn’t surprising as Glam Media enjoys a leaders position amongst women in Germany with over 3 million monthly uniques and its organization in Japan that has already seen local investment from the same VC.
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Adgregate Markets that brings a twist to shopping by enabling users to select and make purchases of the item right from the ad unit has signed a distribution deal with DoubleClick. DoubleClick had been acquired by Google for $3.1 billion. The deal would have Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds replace DoubleClick’s banner ads and will be available to all its advertisers. The deal would also have Adgregate sharing revenue with DoubleClick for every purchase made through the ShopAds widget. I think that the method of shopping that Adgregate provides is pretty secure and it lets you do the buying without having to leave the site you are on.
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Funding, Socialcast a communication tool that business can use to share knowledge by integrating social networking and messaging service has raised $1.4 million in Series A. The funding came from True Ventures and other angel investors. Along with that Om Malik, founder of tech blog, GigaOm will also be taking his seat among the Socialcast board of directors. Socialcast has got a lot of potential given that it lets users import activity from sites like YouTube, your Gmail account and even your iPhone. Although it faces quite a tough competition from the famed Yammer.
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If you have a startup that is useful for the masses and is equally successful, monetizing it is no harm. Babbel, the language learning site is all set to release its first premium product by tomorrow. The service would have you pay for a course that may last for as much as three months with a 20 day money back guarantee. Other features like, training exercises, etc would remain free to use for the time being at least. One will have to see how it affects Babbel, that currently boasts 250,000 registered users.
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When we talk about online video, YouTube is definitely the king and while others may try to compete, it’s just not a playground for any one. Today HBO called it quits with its HBOLab, selling it to Break Media. HBO had previously attempted the same by partnering with AOL in 2007 but that too didn’t prove fruitful. HBO might come out with another one sometime soon, but presently it’s a big no.
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If you are on the lookout for an easy way to send/share links with your friends try Dropvine. No, it’s not another URL shortener to add to the many I have covered. Dropvine acts like your mail service for links, you can add contacts (irrespective if they have a Dropvine account too or not), drag and drop its bookmarklet and the next time you visit an interesting link hit its bookmarklet. That would open up a new window and you can enter your message along with the recipients, those who are in your contact list. Sounds pretty okay, but I would still prefer using the emails if my contacts aren’t using one of those instant messaging clients.
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If you are an expert at something and feel like letting others benefit from your knowledge by using Recipester. No, this isn’t about teaching you how to cook while your mom’s away but a new startup that answers the How To about software problems. If you are stuck with something related to a software, visit the site and you may very well find a solution. If you are left wandering on how to rid your system of a Trojan, all the way to how you can download YouTube Videos to iTunes, visit Recipester for the answer.
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FriendFeed today delivered what it promised, the new features with the beginning of a new week. The best of all is the the live stream of FriendFeed updates, meaning you don’t have to go on waiting with refreshes to get the latest in news. Of course if live streaming bugs you, you can continue with the standard option (which I think is good , given that many people just don’t used to the new feel). You can also filter out the entire session of the day by selecting Best of the Day, so that you don’t miss out what’s been most discussed there. I love these new changes, feels more alive.
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After promising reduction in rates for 2009, the Associated Press today announced that rate reductions worth $35 million are lined up for 2010. Those reductions will also include choice for members to select one year termination plan. According to the AP, these changes are going to dent its revenues amongst the US newspaper members to one third subject to the plans used. These include AP Member Choice Complete which will give complete access to AP’s English text reporting. Choice Limited; which have less focus on national international news.
