Intel’s WiMax bet, Chegg raises seed $, en route to London

Main news in venture world:

–Intel and Motorola will invest $900 million in Kirkland, Wash’s Clearwire, which plans to build WiMax networks nationwide. WiMax differs from WiFi in that it has much longer ranges — as much as 10 miles vs. WiFi’s reach of a few hundred feet. Intel wants to us this to technology to allow someone to get wireless access on a laptop anywhere. (Update: Techdirt provides a hype-puncturing critique of WiMax and Clearwire).

—Chegg, of Palo Alto, an online marketplace for college students to trade items locally, has gotten about $500,000 in seed financing from investors including Convergence Partners’ Eric Di Benedetto and Sam Spadafora, according to VentureWire (sub required). Wants to be a Facebook on ecommerce steroids.

For London folks: Just a reminder we’re meeting up at the Louise in Holborn on Saturday. See u there.