fund

Something about this just makes me uneasy.

Bragster, a London-based site "for dares and social bets," announced Wednesday that it has secured $3.5 million in Series A venture cash. The funding round was led by none other than Intel Capital, the investment branch of the famed chipmaker.

The premise of the Digg-meets-Jackass-esque site is that members dare one another (or place open dares) to perform ridiculous feats, then insist on video evidence that they were completed. Bragster, co-founded by a former Morgan Stanley employee and an Amazon.com alum, provides prizes to some of the most over-the-top … Read more

One of New York's most talked about tech start-ups these days is undoubtedly Etsy, the Brooklyn-based online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods. And it's continuing to generate headlines: co-founder Robert Kalin announced in a blog post Wednesday that the company has picked up an impressive $27 million in Series D financing.

The venture funding comes from existing investors Union Square Ventures and Hubert Burda Media, as well as Accel Partners' Jim Breyer, who will take on a seat on Etsy's board of directors.

Etsy is "almost break-even" when it comes to profits, Kalin … Read more

When it comes to social networking, some investors seem to think that shopaholics are the next big thing.

ThisNext, a social-shopping site where users create lists of products they recommend and schmooze with others, has pulled in $5 million in second-round funding, according to Private Equity Hub.

Earlier this week, another social shopping site, StyleFeeder, announced that it had netted $2 million in first-round funding.

StyleFeeder is recommendation-driven, a sort of Last.fm for shopping. By contrast, the reviews- and list-focused ThisNext has a model more like that of business-reviews site Yelp.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based ThisNext, which was founded … Read more

Virtual Iron, a start-up aiming to commercialize the open-source Xen virtualization software, has raised $20 million.

The investment include Highland Capital Partners, Matrix Partners, Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital, and SAP Ventures, the Lowell, Mass.-based company said. Total funding for the company now has reached $65 million, the company said Monday.

Virtual Iron had "dramatic growth" over the last 12 months, and the new funding round was at a higher valuation, the company said. It didn't release particulars, but did cite IDC statistics saying that spending on server virtualization is growing at 60 percent per year and … Read more

President Bush called for the creation of a clean-energy fund for developing countries in his final State of the Union speech on Monday, but energy policy took a back seat to other international and domestic issues.

Bush reiterated many of his previous policy priorities during the speech, including a call for funding of carbon capture technologies, nuclear power, and fuels that reduce the country's reliance on oil. An excerpt from the speech:

"To build a future of energy security, we must trust in the creative genius of American researchers and entrepreneurs and empower them to pioneer a new … Read more

StyleFeeder, a social shopping site that aims to do for the retail sector what StumbleUpon did for browsing or Last.fm did for music, has announced that it's pulled in $2 million in Series A venture funding from Highland Capital Partners and Schooner Capital.

The start-up, based in Cambridge, Mass., plans to use the $2 million to hire more employees.

StyleFeeder, which has operated until this point on seed funding, operates a "recommendation engine" for fashionistas based on which products users rate and then purchase through affiliates. Much like other recommendation sites, StyleFeeder then suggests related products … Read more

Calling all entrepreneurs: follow the money.

If you did, that road down the IT path would likely lead you to clean-tech and Internet-specific businesses, according to results of the 2007 MoneyTree Report released Friday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

U.S. venture capitalists invested a total of $29.4 billion in 2007, up 10.8 percent from the previous year. That marked the fourth consecutive year of growth. The number of deals reached 3,813 last year, a modest rise of 5 percent over a year earlier.

Clean-technology companies attracted $2.2 billion in investments last year, … Read more

A trio of German entrepreneurs-turned-investors may have invested in Facebook, TechCrunch wrote Tuesday.

The European Founders Fund, consisting of thirtysomething brothers Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer, has reportedly put out a "very brief press release" explaining that they have invested in the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social-networking site. An exact amount was not disclosed.

The investment firm was not immediately available for comment.

It's no secret that Facebook has been hunting for new investors ever since it was pegged with a whopping $15 billion valuation following Microsoft's famous purchase of a $240 million stake. Some of … Read more

Can these guys ever stay out of the news?

Tesla Motors is wrapping up a $40 million round of funding and will then seek another one on top of that in a few months, according to an interview with CEO Ze'ev Drori in VentureWire (subscription required).

Tesla has already raised more than $100 million. The money was largely used to develop the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric sports car coming out later this year, and build out the company's facilities. Car factories cost a lot. The onerous capital requirements, along with the long development time, are two of the … Read more