Venture Capital

Covestor, a social network for armchair investment managers, has raised its own funds. The New York-based company said Monday that it closed on a $6.5 million first round of financing led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. European investor Amadeus Capital Partners also joined the round.

As part of the deal, Todd Dagres from Spark Capital and Albert Wenger of Union Square will join the company's board of directors.

Covestor, which launched its public beta last summer, lets members share and track their investment portfolios. Over time, members can build up a reputation based on the performance … Read more

Marin Software, which makes a browser tool for managing paid search advertising campaigns across Google and other search sites, has brought in $7.25 million in a second round of funding led by Benchmark Capital, according to the company.

Bruce Dunlevie, a general partner at Benchmark, will join the board of the San Francisco-based company. Marin Software plans to use the money to boost its sales and marketing efforts.

Since its founding in 2006, Marin Software has raised just more than $12 million. In its first round in October 2006, it brought in $2.5 million from Amicus Capital, as … Read more

Some venture capitalists may be taking a more cautious approach with their investments, but their funds are certainly getting more sizable. In the first three months of 2008, venture capital funds raised nearly $5 billion, up 29 percent from the same period a year ago, according to a new report from Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. In that time, there were 32 funds closed, 10 more than last year.

One reason: more VCs are taking part in late-stage deals that require larger investments in established players, and venture capitalists could need to infuse those companies with cash to make it … Read more

Movie-ratings site Flixster has called down $5 million of an $8 million series B round of funding, according to the site PEHub, which cited a regulatory filing. The San Francisco-based company raised the money from Pinnacle Ventures and its previous investor, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and it adds to a previous round of $2 million.

The money might be necessary to weather a tightening economy, especially considering that Flixster draws money from advertising. Several venture capitalists have said that smaller, ad-supported Internet services may struggle in a down market.

Apart from its social-network site, Flixster runs a popular Facebook application for … Read more

Web analytics company Coremetics has brought in a whopping $60 million in a series E round of funding led by global investment fund 3i. Accel Partners, FTVentures, and Highland Capital Partners, its previous investors, also participated in the round.

In its nine-year lifespan, the company has raised in excess of $100 million and weathered the dot-com bust. In 2000, it raised $15 million from investors including Accel and Highland. (Its series A investors included Constantin Partners, Garage.com, Selby Venture Partners, and Volpe Brown Whelan & Co.) In 2001, it brought in another $31 million from Accel and Highland, which … Read more

For parents, enticing kids to do their chores is often about making deals--a trade of sorts, like taking out the trash for extra time watching TV.

For George Zachary and his 10-year-old stepdaughter, that real-world exchange happens online through a site called Handipoints, a digital chore-list manager for parents and their kids. The Web site lets parents set a list of tasks for their children--like washing the dishes or filling the dog's bowl--and kids can rack up points for completing the list. With enough points, children can cash them in for digital gear in the site's virtual world, … Read more

The Vikings sailed in small open wooden ships to discover America long before Columbus. Their 21th century counterparts, the Silicon Vikings, prefer business class when they travel the Atlantic.

The $2.6 billion acquisition of the Swedish IP phone company Skype by eBay in 2005 and Sun Microsystems' recent purchase of Swedish-Finnish open-source database company MySQL for $1 billion has raised hopes among Nordic investors that more big deals for VC-backed Nordic companies could be in the pipeline in the U.S.

And the Vikings have a lot of cash. Venture capital firms from Sweden and Finland-- the Norwegians prefer … Read more

Yardbarker, a social network for athletes and their fans, has joined the pack of new venture-funded sports sites.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based Yardbarker (old slang for a home run) said this week that it raised $5 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and a group of its early angel investors. In the spring of 2007, the company brought in an undisclosed sum from angels including Russ Siegelman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Jarl Mohn, former CEO of Liberty Digital and a director at News.com publisher CNET Networks; and Ronnie Lott, former 49ers Hall of Famer.

The market … Read more

Yahoo's still pushing hard on mobile technology, despite the potential distraction of a Microsoft takeover bid.

Yahoo this week led a $20 million investment in Vlingo, a speech-recognition technology company. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company also said that Vlingo will power the voice capabilities of the mobile oneSearch service, a search engine optimized for the phone.

To use the voice-search service, which will be available immediately, people must first download the Vlingo client. (It currently works only on select BlackBerries, but Yahoo said it will be available soon on other mobile phones.) With the application, users can voice queries, … Read more