funding

New Zealander and former decathlete Sean Gourley says it's only a matter of time before his company Quid will know more than the United States government. "How much is information worth?" he asked rhetorically during at a recent lunch meeting with CNET, as he showed off Quid's software that uses data, math, and visualizations to help clients make billion-dollar decisions.

Based on today's news from the company, the answer to Gourley's question is "a lot." Quid announced it has secured $10 million in series C funding from some heavyweights in the Silicon … Read more

The International Monetary Fund has become the latest high-profile organization to fall victim to a network intrusion, according to various media reports, suffering a substantial breach, the full extent of which is not yet known.

Reporting the incident earlier today, The New York Times quoted an unnamed official as saying the breach was a "very major" one and that it had been taking place over the last several months.

The Times said the actual dimensions of the attack were unknown and that the IMF would say only that the Fund was "fully functional" and that the … Read more

Clean-tech start-ups that think they can be nimble and quick to market may be interested in a new incubator from San Francisco.

Greenstart, whose team includes former executives from the Jumpstart Automotive Media Group, is looking to act as an accelerator for start-ups that can essentially be up-and-running in about six months.

Akin to what Y Combinator did for Web and mobile start-ups, Greenstart is looking to offer the same type of services for green-tech start-ups.

The company says it wants to find "fast cleantech" companies, but its application of that term is pretty broad.

"We define … Read more

An unlikely pairing has emerged in the online space.

A new start-up called Backplane has raised over $1 million in venture funding, The New York Times is reporting. The company's investment is led by Tomorrow Ventures, the venture firm that Google Executive Chairman (and former CEO) Eric Schmidt founded.

By investing in Backplane, Schmidt has a new partner: Lady Gaga. The pop artist owns 20 percent of Backplane, according to The New York Times.

Backplane, which has yet to launch, is designed to build and expand online communities around musicians and sports teams. According to the Times, the service … Read more

Americans who receive meter data on their home energy use reduce consumption on average by 1.8 percent after the first year.

That's according to a study of 750,000 households of varied demographics in six states conducted by energy-management software company Opower and sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The study followed homes enrolled in various utility programs that provided home usage data via Web portal, text, or paper reports mailed to consumers' homes.

The figure may not sound like much. But if every home in the U.S. reduced energy consumption by 1.8 percent, nationwide … Read more

A few students in Atlanta Public Schools will soon be driven to school in a the nation's first hydraulic hybrid conversion of a traditional school bus.

Financed by a $50,000 grant from The Ford Motor Company Fund and converted by students at Georgia Institute of Technology, the bus will run on recycled biofuel.

There are more than 480,000 iconic yellow school buses in the United States, but this 16-passenger school bus is being painted green by students at Mary Lin Elementary School in Atlanta, Ga.

The students at Mary Lin have also organized a drive for used … Read more

The camera market might be dominated by giants such as Canon and Panasonic, but a small start-up founded by a surfer in Half Moon Bay, Calif., has persuaded venture capitalists to invest.

GoPro, maker of the diminutive Hero line of cameras geared to record action video of snowboarding, base jumping, mountain biking, scuba diving, and car racing, announced the funding today. The "substantial strategic investment" of undisclosed magnitude is from Riverwood Capital, Steamboat Ventures, Sageview Capital, Walden International, and U.S. Venture Partners.

The company has found a niche for its products--including a range of accessories such as … Read more

Apple's stock is still very much in demand despite recent concerns that a lightening of its shares on the Nasdaq 100 would lead to a sell-off and thus a price drop, according to Reuters.

In an attempt to rebalance the weighting of companies on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index, the exchange recently shrunk the percentage taken up by Apple to 12.33 percent from 20.49 percent--the largest individual change. At the same time, Nasdaq bumped up the weightings on the shares of other tech giants, including Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Google, Intel, and Oracle. Such weightings are used by … Read more

Two companies tied to prominent technology entrepreneurs are among those that received funding through the NASA's Commercial Crew Development effort, the government agency announced yesterday.

Blue Origin, which was started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, received $22 million in the funding round. PayPal co-founder Elon Musk's SpaceX received $75 million. They were flanked by Sierra Nevada and Boeing, which received $80 million and $92.3 million, respectively.

The Commercial Crew Development program, which began in 2009, is arguably one of the most important efforts under way at NASA. Its goal is to help U.S. private enterprises develop … Read more