fund

Three companies have combined forces to take a look at the state of angel round investing.

The Angel Resource Institute, Silicon Valley Bank, and CB Insights have revealed in their first Halo Report, a study on the current state of early-stage investment across the U.S., that California is, as many might expect, the top destination for entrepreneurs looking to raise cash.

According to the study, 21 percent of all investments were secured last year in California. The Great Lakes region, including Ohio and Wisconsin, among other states, accounted for 15.9 percent of all angel investing in 2011. New … Read more

Social-voting site Votizen has secured $750,000 in new funding. And Sean Parker of Napster and Facebook fame is chief among the company's latest investors.

Speaking to All Things Digital in an interview posted last night, Parker, who is best known for co-founding Napster and playing an integral role in Facebook's growth, said that "politics is one of the few remaining large-scale consumer-facing opportunities on the Internet," and he wants to be a part of the movement with Votizen.

This isn't the first time Parker has given Votizen some cash. According to All Things Digital, … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to bring its subsidy programs for low income families into the 21st century by offering funds for basic broadband service for financially disadvantaged Americans.

In its January open meeting Tuesday, the FCC adopted an order that will eliminate the FCC's Link Up program, which offers a one-time $30 credit for the installation of landlines or activation fee for cell phones. And it announced a new pilot program that will direct universal service funds collected for these subsidy programs to offer subsidies for basic broadband service.

The commission also pledged to root out waste, … Read more

One of the most prominent venture capital firms in the online world has raised a huge sum of cash.

Andreessen Horowitz (or a16z, as it's sometimes called) announced today that it has raised $1.5 billion for its Fund III. The venture capital firm has now raised a total of $2.7 billion since its founding in June 2009.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Andreessen Horowitz was looking to raise $1.5 billion to continue in its venture capital endeavors. At the time, the company declined to comment.

Today was the day to lay it all … Read more

If there had been an early-stage incubator at Harvard when Mark Zuckerberg was starting Facebook, the world's largest social-networking company might not be based in Silicon Valley today.

There was no such investment fund back in 2004, but today, there is. In an announcement this morning, Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) launched the Experiment Fund, a new early-stage seed fund that is being backed by New Enterprise Associates, one of the world's largest venture capital firms.

According to the fund's Web site, its mission is to be "a bridge between America's … Read more

Fitbit, a maker of a digital health and fitness devices, announced today it has raised $12 million in Series C funding.

The round of funding, which will be used to fund growth, was led by existing partners Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, and Felicis Ventures.

"This funding will help us accelerate the hiring of the best hardware and software engineers, designers, product managers and marketers," Fitbit CEO and co-founder James Park said in a statement. "This is the perfect time for passionate and smart people to join us as we create devices and services that improve … Read more

Kwaga, a French startup that fixes shortcomings of today's e-mail, has raised $1.55 million in first-round funding.

The company's flagship service today is called WriteThat.name. It reads your e-mail and automatically enters contact information into your address book, creating new entries and updating existing ones.

It works today only with Google Apps and Gmail, but the funding will help the company bring it to Microsoft Outlook, too. That service is in beta testing right now.

The funds also will help the company integrate with major customer-relations management (CRM) products.

The funding came from private investors and … Read more

Venture capital funding was up last year to a 10-year high. So is it a bubble? And if so, is it still expanding or ready to burst? Read on.

During the fourth quarter of 2011, venture capitalists spent $7.6 billion investing in companies around the world, according to venture capital database CB Insights. All told, investors offered up $30.6 billion last year in over 3,000 deals, making it the biggest investment year in a decade. In 2010, venture capitalists plunked $23.7 billion into nearly 2,800 deals.

Investors dropped $2.5 billion into online companies last … Read more

Unruly Media, a video-promotion start-up that just botched a Google Chrome ad campaign, has raised $25 million in first-round funding.

Among investors in the London-based company are Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers, and the British Growth Fund. The money will be used "to accelerate international growth and cement Unruly's position as the global leader in this fast-growing area," the company said today.

Unruly helps its clients promote video advertisements that, if all goes according to plan, spread virally. Among those it's been involved in are Evian's roller babies and Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" … Read more