Funding Daily: The best professional money raisers

Here is today’s funding news from the world of tech startups.

Can Thumbtack take down Angie’s List? VCs’ $30M says yes

Thumbtack, where you can find local professionals to hire for a variety of tasks, announced it has just raised $30 million in new funding. Thumbtack is essentially a Yelp or Angie’s List with booking abilities built right in. Not only can you find the right plumber, voice coach, or knitting expert, you can also contact and hire them through the site. This functionality is how the company believes it distinguishes itself. The company also said that it will use this latest round of funding to “significantly grow the team” (read: massive hiring) and invest in product development. Early investors Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management led the round.

Read more on VentureBeat: Can Thumbtack take down Angie’s List? VCs’ $30M says yes

Silent Circle raises $30M

True mobile privacy requires specialized hardware. That’s what we heard from Silent Circle, which announced $30 million in new funding today. The privacy-focused startup will use the funds to bring its ultrasecure “Blackphone” — a $629 smartphone powered by a custom version of Android called PrivatOS — to market next month. The company also announced that it is relocating its global headquarters from the Caribbean island of Nevis to Switzerland. Venture capitalist Ross Perot, Jr., and Cain Capital provided the new money, according to the Washington Post.

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Human-powered translation platform Smartling gets a fresh $25M

New York-based Smartling provides a cloud-based platform built around translation, and on Thursday the company announced it has scored a fourth institutional round of $25 million to support its sales and marketing expansion. The new funding will help hire about 50 new people in sales and marketing, mostly for the New York and Boston offices. This funding round was led by ICONIQ Capital and included participation by previous investors — First Round Capital, Harmony Partners, IDG Ventures, Tenaya Capital, U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock.

With $22M, Brandwatch will listen to the social web — like every company in 2009

Brandwatch helps brands monitor and analyze conversations across Twitter, Facebook, and millions of other sites. The folks over at Highline Capital Partners Europe are clearly bullish on the company: The venture capital firm led a $22 million funding round in the social-listening startup, Brandwatch announced today. Existing investor Nauta Capital, which led a $6 million financing in Brandwatch in 2012, also participated in the new funding round.

Former Apple designer nabs fresh funding to make photoblogging on the iPad a delight

Storehouse is an iPad app and service that could be called “the Medium for visual stories.” It’s simple, visually pleasing, and enables the creation of amazing work in longform. And despite launching this past January, it has already raised a new $7 million round of funding. Sherpa Ventures led the round, and current backers True Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Designer Fund, and some angel investors also contributed to this first institutional funding round.

Yoyo raises $5M

Yoyo, a London-based mobile payment and loyalty app, has just raised $5 million in seed funding from Imperial Innovations, Firestartr, Telefonica Group, and a handful of angel investors. The app was already in use on Imperial College London’s campus, and it will now roll out at the University of Westminster and University of Greenwich, adding an additional potential 50,000 users. The app enables people to connect it to a bank account and pay through the app. They can also collect loyalty points and special offers within the app. Merchants integrate Yoyo into their point-of-sale and use a unique QR code for each transaction. Yoyo also sees itself as a marketing too for merchants due to the loyalty and special offers aspect of it. The company plans to use the funding to continue growing in the U.K. market before expanding into the U.S. and the rest of Europe. The company was founded in 2013 and hopes to raise its next round of funding later this year.

Paris-based ad startup TVTY startup raises $4.5M, and it wants TV ads to follow you everywhere

Paris-based startup TVTY has just nabbed $4.5 million to lower the chances that you can avoid ads from a specific company by going online during TV commercial breaks. The $4.5 million, raised from Partech Ventures, 360 Capital Partners, and angels, brings the company’s total to $6.8 million so far. Plans for the funds include opening a New York City office.

Clariture raises $1M

Health care providers are looking for ways to connect with potential patients on the web, on mobile devices, and through social channels. And San Francisco-based Clariture is ramping up to fill the need. Clariture’s platform uses social media and patient data to find people who are likely to respond to a healthcare provider’s proposition. Clariture customers can then reach out to the prospect through search campaigns and ad placements on social media and mobile channels. Clariture’s new $1 million seed funding comes from The Martin Cos., a venture capital and incubation firm that specializes in early-stage healthcare and technology companies.

3D mapping startup Quanergy raises $1M

Quanergy, a startup that makes sensors that can generate three-dimensional images and accompanying software, has raised $1 million in funding, according to a filing it submitted today to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The startup’s technology could be useful for driverless cars. In November the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup announced that it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Transportation Technology Ventures, Wardenclyffe Partners, Newbury Ventures, and Markis.

Read the SEC filing.

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