Funding Daily: Big-money Thursday

Today was a big day for the folks at Couchbase, Wickr, and CareCloud, which each raised tens of millions in new funding. We’ve got the details on those deals and more in today’s edition of Funding Daily.

First Round Capital raises a fifth, $175M fund — up from $135M in 2012

First Round Capital today announced its fifth fund — a $175M round from existing limited partners. With little surprise, the firm intends to do what it always does with new capital: make seed-stage investments in Silicon Valley and New York.

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First Round’s fifth fund is its largest to date, up from $135 million in 2012, $126.4 million in 2010, and $125 million in 2008.

Read the full story on VentureBeat: First Round Capital raises a fifth, $175M fund — up from $135M in 2012

Couchbase, dreaming of becoming a huge name in big data, takes on $60M

Couchbase, provider of a NoSQL database for storing and delivering several kinds of data at scale, announced today a substantial $60 million funding round, one that could help the startup’s technology become more widely used.

WestSummit and Accel Growth Fund led the new round. All of Couchbase’s previous venture investors, including Ignition Partners, Mayfield Fund, and North Bridge Venture Partners, also participated. To date, Couchbase has raised $115 million.

Read the full story on VentureBeat: Couchbase, dreaming of becoming a huge name in big data, takes on $60M

Self-destructing messaging app Wickr scores $30M

Wickr, an app that securely sends self-destructing text, audio, and video messages, announced today that it has raised a second funding round of $30 million. Jim Breyer, the founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, led the round, and he’s also joining the company’s board.

The news comes only a few months after Wickr announced its $9 million first round. Wickr claims it now has the resources to “build the most trusted communications system in the world.”

Read the full story on VentureBeat: Self-destructing messaging app Wickr scores $30M led by Jim Breyer

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CareCloud takes $25.5M in debt financing to expand medical-group data

CareCloud, which provides cloud-based practice management, electronic health records (EHR), and medical billing software to medical groups, says it’s taken $25.5 million in new venture debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital.

The Miami Springs, Florida-based CareCloud has now taken a total investment of $81.9 million since its launch in 2009. Before the new debt funding it had taken $56.4 million in venture capital funding.

Read the full story on VentureBeat: CareCloud takes $25.5M in debt financing to expand medical group data

Payments startup PayActiv nabs $4.3M

A stealthy startup called PayActiv has just raised about $4.3 million out of the $5.2 million it’s seeking, according to a document the company filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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The company is “focused on alternative payment products and services,” according to PayActiv CEO Safwan Shah’s LinkedIn profile. SoftBank’s Scarlett O’Sullivan and Kabir Misra are listed as directors, likely signaling that SoftBank’s venture capital arm is an investor. Angel investor Ajit Medhekar is also listed as a director.

Read the SEC filing here.

Content discovery startup Curiyo grabs $1.9M seed round

Curiyo, a startup that promises publishers it can help keep their readers’ attention, has raised $1.9 million in funding, the company announced yesterday. Backers include crowdfunding site OurCrowd, Cedar Fund, Morton Meyerson of 2M, Kima Ventures, Tom Glocer, Gigi Levy, JumpSpeed Ventures, and other private investors.

Curiyo launched yesterday on USA Today‘s “Life” section. The service turns specific words and phrases that readers might want to know more about into links, which create in-page windows with information when folks click them. That will keep readers from navigating away from the page, the startup contends.

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Bob Rosenschein, the former CEO of Answers.com, is Curiyo’s founder and chief executive.

Read the company’s press release here.

Social-content startup Besomebody snares $1 million in seed funding

Besomebody, an Austin, Texas-based “passion economy” social platform, pulled in $1 million from investors. The E.W. Scripps company led the round. Besomebody founder Kash Shaikh is a former Proctor & Gamble and GoPro executive.

Besomebody describes itself as a fast growing “motivational” content platform that delivers information to four million users from 180 countries every month. It connects people with what it calls “shared passions,” much the way a dating or hobby site connects people with similar likes.

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Read the full story on VentureBeat: Social-content startup Besomebody snares $1 million in seed funding