In today’s edition of legendary funding column Funding Daily, we have news about storage boxes, a “Netflix for ebooks,” app testing, and so much more. Check out all the news below.
Investors knight Nutanix as new hardware superstar with $101M round
Top enterprise-focused investors have selected a new darling: Nutanix, a company that makes boxes that combine servers and storage. Today Nutanix pulled the cover off a seriously large $101 million investment. Nutanix stuffs fast flash drives, reliable disk drives, and basic servers into a single box, taking inspiration from web properties operating at giant scale, like Amazon.com, Facebook, and Google. Read more on VentureBeat.
Utest gets $43M to test your apps in the real world
As apps become more important to businesses, so does the ability to make sure those apps work properly. Utest, a company that has developed a unique form of crowdsourced app testing “in the wild,” announced today that it has raised an additional $43 million in a fifth round of funding led by Goldman Sachs. It brings UTest’s total funding to $80 million. Read more on VentureBeat.
Chrome River gets $17M for B2B billing
Chrome River, a startup that makes software-as-a-service tech for business-to-business (B2B) invoicing and expense management, has raised a healthy $17 million round of funding. The cash comes from Bain Capital as well as existing investors First Analysis and Argentum. This is Chrome River’s third round of institutional funding. Read more on VentureBeat.
WP Engine sets sights on bigger enterprise clients with first major funding round
Nineteen percent of the Web runs on WordPress, and tens of thousands of WordPress’s most active customers run on WP Engine. WP Engine announced the close of $15 million in funding today to fuel the development of new products. Read more on VentureBeat.
Oyster soaks up $14M to bring Netflix model to e-books
The folks behind Oyster, a new e-book subscription service, hope you’ll binge on books as ravenously as you devour Netflix shows. The startup launched its platform in September, offering iPhone owners a chance to peruse more than 100,000 books for $10 a month. Then in October, the company launched an iPad app, doubling its subscription base “almost overnight.” And today, Oyster announced $14 million in new financing, which it will use to expand to other platforms and grow the team. Read more on VentureBeat.
SuVolta raises $10.6M to to reduce gadget power consumption dramatically
SuVolta, which helps chip makers overhaul their semiconductor designs so they use less power, has raised $10.6 million in a new round of funding. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company has now raised $50.4 million since 2009. That’s a lot of money, and it tells you that it’s no small task to create a new chip technology these days. But it also speaks to the potential of SuVolta, which is trying to reduce power consumption in a wide range of chips by 50 percent. That kind of technological advance will enable chip makers to cram more powerful electronics into smartphones and tablets while extending battery life at the same time. Read more on VentureBeat.
Visually raises $8.1M to flood the Internet with even more infographics
How to be happy? Scarf tying? SEO? Dog bowls? Yes, there is an infographic for that. There seems to be no subject matter so small, no dataset so niche, that you can’t create an infographic about it, and Visually is standing at the ready to supply them. Today the marketplace for data visualizations and infographics announced that it has raised $8.1 million in funding. Read more on VentureBeat.
ResponseTek takes $6M to make sense of customers’ comments
While Responsys and other tools for smartly reaching out to potential customers have been making big headlines lately, software for analyzing statements from customers hasn’t been quite as trendy. But today a company that monitors what customers tell companies, ReponseTek, is getting some attention, with a new $6 million round of venture funding. Read more on VentureBeat.
Intellinote takes $4.3M to take workforce management to the cloud
Grotech and Boulder Ventures have put $4.3 million into Intellinote, a startup that’s all about putting big old enterprise functions in the cloud. In this specific case, we’re talking about workforce operations management and collaborative workflows. The technology is, in the words of the company, “a simple and effective place for individuals and teams to capture notes, turn them into actions, and get work done anytime, anywhere, from any device.” Read more on VentureBeat.
Culinary Agents snags $500K to connect chefs and restaurants
Culinary Agents raised a $500,000 round of seed funding from RRE Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and some angel investors to kickstart its “LinkedIn for chefs” platform. The brainchild of former IBM executive Alice Cheng, Culinary Agents aims to replace CraigsList as the default platform for culinary jobs and networking. It’s been live for about a year and has roughly 10,000 users.
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