Funding Daily: Daylight Savings

Thanks to Daylight Savings, I woke up this morning to sunshine, bird calls, and a warm breeze. Time fell back an hour and I am now able to watch the sunset over the Bay as I write Funding Daily. Here is today’s funding news that came out from dusk till dawn.

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Clean-tech startup LightSail pulls in $37.3M from Bill Gates, Peter Thiel

Clean-tech company LightSail has earned some heavyweight support from both venture capital firms and angel investors, including Microsoft’s cofounder Bill Gates. The startup pulled in $37.3 million to deliver a better system to store energy generated through the wind and the sun. Holding energy for commercial use has been tricky — makeshift solutions include electrochemical batteries, mechanical devices, and liquefied air. Other investors include Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, as well as Khosla Ventures. The three-year-old company has raised a total of $52.3 million in funding. Read more on VentureBeat.

Kenshoo steps onto its fourth stair of funding

Digital marketing software provider Kenshoo has raised $12 million to scale the company. Kenshoo offers solutions for search marketing, social media, and online advertising.The Kenshoo platform powers campaigns in 190 countries. Clients include over 20 of the Fortune 50 and 10 top global ad agencies. High-profile clients include Careerbuilder, Expedia, Facebook, Kayak, LendingTree, Sears, Tesco, Walgreens, and Zappos. This fourth institutional investment was led by Tenaya Capital and contributed to by previous investors Sequoia Capital and Arts Alliance. Read more on VentureBeat.

IPO-bound marketing biz HubSpot grabs $35M for aggressive growth

Inbound marketing software business HubSpot has raised $35 million in fresh funding to help it grow quickly, a sign that the six-year-old company could be readying to go public. HubSpot offers marketing software suites that help businesses attract and convert new customers. The company claims to have 8,000 customers in 56 countries. It now has more than 400 employees, up 100 from a year ago, and it expects to hire 55 more folks before the end of this year. The new funding was raised from Altimeter Capital, Cross Creek Capital, and “a large, unnamed institutional investor,” and previous investors. HubSpot has raised a total of $101 million to date. Read more on VentureBeat. 

OrderGroove moves subscription e-commerce from serial dating to monogomy

OrderGroove has raised $6.7 million to help businesses move their ‘casual dater’ customers into committed partners. OrderGroove’s software-as-a-service platform powers subscription and membership commerce for large companies and their brands.Over the past year, OrderGroove has tripled its client roster and currently works with over 60 companies, including major names like L’Oreal, Jockey, Johnson & Johnson, Rogaine, and wine seller Lot18.

Fung Capital led this second round of investment, with participation from Lerer Ventures, Legend and Swan Ventures, Allegro Venture Partners, Bee Partners as well as former Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez and NEW Corporation’s Chairman Fred Schaufeld. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Blue Box relinquishes hold on well-worn bootstraps, accepts VC helping hand 

After a decade of bootstrapping, cloud hosting company Blue Box finally reached out for a leg up from investors. Blue Box was founded in 2003 as a managed hosting provider and since then has provided web application infrastructure for 600 clients. It has data centers around the US and is planning to use this money to expand internationally, as well spur product innovation, hiring, marketing and sales. The $3.5 million boost came from Voyager Capital. Blue Box is based in Seattle. Read the press release.

Amadeus serenades health IT platform Qinec with initial investment

Healthcare management platform Qinec took $2.5 million from Amadeus Capital Partners and Archimedia Investments. Qinec’s software streamlines appointment booking, record-keeping, prescriptions and billing for outpatient medical care. The technology can be used by medical practices and insurers to keep their operations running efficiently. Qinec is based in the UK and is the latest of Amadeus Capital’s investments in medical technology. Read the press release.

The One-Page Company raises One-Point-Five Million in seed funding

One-hit wonders may not be a good thing, but one page proposals are. A startup called The One-Page Company has closed a $1.5 million with Blumberg Capital, TMT Investments, and angel investors. This business-to-business platform provides a one page form that keeps proposals consistent and concise. It can be used during the recruiting process, as well as when addressing specific business challenges. The One-Page Company is based in San Francisco, CA.

24/7 Techies works behind the scenes in Sri Lanka to support startups 

Many startup entrepreneurs and executives live, eat, and breathe technology to get their companies off the ground. Sometimes, there are not enough hours in a day to meet all the needs of an early company in house, and there to support them are the 24/7 Techies. 24/7 Techies is a Sri Lankan startup that offers tech support services for small and medium business.  Its clients have constant access to trained IT professionals that has services for mobile, desktop, server, security, cloud and marketing. 24/7 Techies has raised $600,000 in a seed round led by 500 startups, as well as angel investors. The team is based in Sri Lanka, but it focuses its sales on the US, Canada, Australia, and UK.

AtTask rides ski lift of $17 million to the top of Silicon Slopes

In the hills outside Salt Lake City, a technology scene is beginning to emerge. AtTask, a Utah startup that provides a software-as-a-service platform for project and work management, finalized a $17 million deal last week. The VentureBeat funding news division was preoccupied with the office Halloween party at the time and unable to cover this announcement. The investment was led by Greenspring Associates, a venture capital firm based in Baltimore, as well as Austin, Texas’ Escalate Capital and the University Venture Fund from Salt Lake City. Read more on VentureBeat.