Funding Daily: Decisions, decisions

Making decisions can be hard. I know, I am a Libra. Investors and entrepreneurs are both faced with making big decisions every single day. As for me, my choices are generally on a smaller scale. It isn’t “should I invest in this company” or “how much to invest at what valuation.” Rather, I deliberate over what to wear that day, if I should bike or walk to work, or whether I want brownies or ice cream for dessert. In the case of the last one, the answer is both.

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FreedomPop raises $4.3M more, expands ‘social broadband’ platform for free wireless

FreedomPop’s announced that it has raised an addition $4.3 million for its first round from existing investors DCM and Mangrove Capital, on top of the the $7.5 million it raised last year. FreedomPop offers wireless devices that offer a significant chunk of bandwidth for free, with the ability to earn even more free bandwidth by bringing on friends. Read more on VentureBeat.

Investors make a $27M bet in ad-tech startup DataXu 

DataXu pulled in $27 million in funding today, proving that investors continue to see potential in the massively complicated world of ad-tech. The round of funding was led by Thomvest Ventures with participation from existing investors Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners and Menlo Ventures. Read more on VentureBeat.

SoftBank Capital creates $250M fund to help startups break into Asia

SoftBank capital formed a new $250 million investment fund, the venture capital firm wants to make it easier for growth-stage companies to make headway in countries like China and Japan, which expansion is often tough. SoftBank is a Japanese company that has made investments in Buddy Media, OMGPOP, and Bluefin Labs, which was recently acquired by Twitter. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Spark Capital to close an oversubscribed $425M fund 

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Spark Capital plans to close its oversubscribed $425 million fourth fund in two weeks, the firm revealed in a correction to a story published in Business Insider. Spark only announced it would be raising its fourth fund in December. The firm will invest in diverse market segments, including advertising, e-commerce, cloud computing and infrastructure, social, mobile and content. The firm’s best-known portfolio companies include hipster eyewear brand Warby Parker, Tumblr and Twitter. Read more on VentureBeat.

Seesaw launches to still the swings of indecision

Seesaw launched its mobile app today to help people make decisions like these.The iOS app connects people with their friends to ask for opinions and receive feedback. Seesaw is backed by $1.1 million in seed funding from Freestyle Capital, Baseline Ventures, and First Round Capital. Read more on VentureBeat. 

It’s time for MyTime 

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MyTime launched today, backed by $3 million in venture funding from Mark Suster, Dave McClure, Brian Lee, Dvid Tisch, and Jason Calacanis, among others. MyTime is an online open appointment superstore that lets consumers in a city see all the open appointment times for specific services. The system is synced with the scheduling systems of local businesses and can process payments. The service launched in Los Angeles and has plans to expand. Read a blog post about the investment. 

Blazent blazes into $5M

IT Intelligence company Blazent raised $5 million in new funding, according to an SEC filing. Blazent provides IT executives with analytics and data solutions to provide an overview of the entire infrastructure. Investors listed on the filing include HighBAR Ventures and Walden Ventures. Read the SEC filing.

Alchemy API turns natural language processing into gold

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AlchemyAPI provides a ‘cloud-based and on-premise’ text analysis infrastructure that make its easier to integrate natural language processing into an existing application. This text mining and big data analytics company has secured $2 million in financing to scale sits operations, expand sales, and develop new products. AlchemyAPI is based in Denver Colorado. Access Venture Partners led this round. Read the press release.

Nanosatisfi gets sent off towards stratosphere

Space imaging and data platform Nanosatisfi has raised $1.2 million in seed funding. The company seeks to offers affordable and convenient access to space, and the data collected has possible applications in science educate, weather analysis, and for governmental or military purposes. The new funds were raised using the AngelList/SecondMarket partnership.