Alastair Goldfisher
The travel activities booking site Peek announced it has raised $5 million in its second round of funding that was led by Todd Kimmel from Montage Ventures. As part of the funding, Kimmel has joined the board, which also includes co-founders Ruzwana Bashir and Oskar Bruening. Other new investors in the second round include individuals Brad Gerstner (founder of Altimeter Capital) and Jeff Fluhr (co-founder of StubHub and Spreecast), as well returning investors. The San Francisco-based company has now raised $6.5 million in total funding. Peek.com was launched in 2012 with funding from Jack Dorsey (co-founder of Twitter and Square), Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google) and David Bonderman (founding partner of TPG Capital), among others. The company helps travelers and locals to book activities, such as sightseeing tours and wine tastings.
New Enterprise Associates has led a $2.7 million seed round in Blend, a San Francisco-based maker of a social networking app for college students. Trinity Ventures, Foundation Capital, Lerer Ventures, Maveron, BoxGroup, XG Ventures and SparkLabs Global Ventures also joined in the seed round. The app is available for students in more than 3,500 universities nationwide, except those from Ohio State University. Blend co-founder and CEO Akash Nigam attended the University of Michigan before dropping out and launching Blend. As such, the company doesn't allow students from rival school Ohio State to sign up for the app.
San Francisco-based MovieLaLa, which operates a social network and marketing platform for upcoming movies, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Allen DeBevoise, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Machinima, a provider of a worldwide video entertainment network. Allen joins previous MovieLaLa backers in the seed round, including Jim Moloshok, a former executive at HBO and Warner Bros; Larry Braitman, a founding investor in Flixster; Wealthfront CEO and President Adam Nash; and Manatt Digital Media Ventures.
Scott Bonham, who's from Ontario, said that he expects to see more startup and entrepreneurial activity from those associated with BlackBerry
Scott Bonham, who’s from Ontario, said that he expects to see more startup and entrepreneurial activity from people associated with BlackBerry
I bet you that bitcoin investing will soar this year. And if you want to wager in bitcoin, I will most certainly take that bet.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which recently closed Fund XI with $325 million in commitments, has named Heidi Roizen an operating partner. DFJ announced the move on its blog, which you can read here. Roizen, who was formerly a managing director with Mobius Venture Capital, joined DFJ as a venture partner in February 2012.
Institutional Venture Partners has joined a growing list of venture firms that have hung their shingles in San Francisco. "We're seeing a ton of tech talent in the city, and if a venture firm is not set up to work with them here in San Francisco, then they're at a disadvantage," IVP General Partner Dennis Phelps told peHUB.
RedOwl Analytics, which analyzes digital communications to prevent threats in enterprise data, was named the Most Innovative startup company at the RSA Conference this year.
Titanium Core, an Israeli cybersecurity startup focused on threat protection, won JVP's startup competition, called "Cybertition," on Tuesday. The company, which was one of eight startup finalists presenting to JVP partners and others during a co-sponsored event at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, will receive $1 million in funding. Titanium will also join JVP's Cyber Labs, an incubator focused on cybersecurity startups. Israeli venture firm JVP is currently raising a fund focused on cybersecurity.