Here’s a list of today’s tech funding stories, updated as the day unfolds. Tip us here if you have a deal to share.
Yummly cooks up $15M to help you choose what’s for dinner
Recipe search engine Yummly announced today that it closed a $15 million series B investment from Bauer Venture Partners. The company allows users to browse for personalized recipes and says it wants to help answer the question “What’s for dinner?”
Yummly has raised at least $24 million, and some of its previous investorsinclude Physic Ventures, Unilever Corporate Ventures, Harrison Metal Capital, First Round Capital, Intel Capital, and The Harvard Common Press.
The latest round, the company said, will allow it to expand its technology. Yummly has partnerships with DuckDuckGo and Instacart, and is looking into working with Mixpanel, and URX, Witlin told VB in an interview last month.
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Mobcrush raises $11M for mobile game livestreaming
Mobile game livestreaming service Mobcrush has raised $11 million in funding from investors led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup is trying to steal a march on PC-based rivals such as Twitch by focusing on a “mobile first” strategy for streaming games. Mobcrush wants to enable fans to play games and share the gameplay live with other spectators, with the eventual goal of connecting the world’s billion mobile gamers with one-click streaming.
The size of the market isn’t clear, but there are a billion mobile users, and lots of them play games. Besides KPCB, other investors include Raine Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Lowercase, Rincon Venture Partners, Crosscut Ventures, and Advancit Capital.
LotusFlare gets $6M from Social+Capital, others to make mobile internet more accessible
Getting those in developing countries connected with the rest of the world involves more than just providing infrastructure — it’s about making sure that those users understand what they can do with the data. It’s estimated that there are nearly 4.9 billion people in the world today living without mobile internet connectivity. LotusFlare is hoping its solution will help empower users to control their data usage and create a better overall mobile experience.
To help accelerate its mission, LotusFlare has taken on $6 million in new funding in a round led by the Social+Capital Partnership. Google Ventures, Metamophic Ventures, and others have joined in on this Series A investment.
Ashton Kutcher invests in esports startup Unikrn as it launches global platform
First, billionaire investor and Shark Tank television celebrity Mark Cuban invested in Unikrn. Now Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary are investing in the esports gaming startup through their Sound Ventures investment firm. Unikrn is also launching its global platform today.
Following on a $7 million investment that included Cuban, the deal is another sign that esports is maturing, and that entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to make money from the tens of millions of people who regularly watch esports matches for fun. Seattle-based Unikrn has created a web site where you can bet on matches with your favorite esports athletes in games such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Dota 2, and others.
This list will be updated with breaking funding news all day. Check back for more.
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