Funding Daily: Flying Ubers

Uber was the big funding story today. Rumors about the round and the valuation have circulated all summer long. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing today reveals just how big the round is. The company is known for its aggressive growth strategy, and now with this massive influx of cash, it really is on track to become a global transportation company. Maybe someday I will be able to Uber from San Francisco to London. In a flying Uber. That would be cool.

Uber valued at $3.5B thanks to major funding round 

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Alternative taxi service Uber has raised a funding round worth hundreds of millions of dollars from TPG, Benchmark, and reportedly Google Ventures. A Delaware filing with the SEC shows Uber has sold off some of its C-1 and C-2 stock to those major Silicon Valley investors and may now be valued around $3.5 billion. The total round came to around $350 million. Read more on VentureBeat.

Magnatics raises $17M for distributed storage

Maginatics has raised $17 million for its storage solutions for distributed enterprises. Its flagship platform, MagFS, offers Network Attached Storage-like capabilities where NAS is not an option. It helps organizations transition from traditional storage architecture to software-only architecture. Intel Capital led this second round, with participation from Comcast Ventures, WestSummit Capital, and existing investors Atlantic Bridge and VMware. It all be used to scale sales and marketing and support and growth at home and abroad.

Naked Wines dons $10M to sell you more wine for less 

Naked Wines has raised $10 million to expand its online wine store internationally. Its community of 150,000 wine drinkers, known as “angels,” put $40 a month into their Naked Wines account. This money is then invested into independent winemakers, in exchange for exclusivity and wholesale pricing. WIV Wein International AG led this round. WIV is a group of direct wine selling companies. It will accelerate NakedWines’ efforts in the U.S. and Australian markets. Read more on VentureBeat.

Smart Recruiters raises $10M to win the steep ‘uphill battle’ of recruiting

Smart Recruiters has raised $10 million to attempt to improve the intricate, tangled, confusing, and frustrating hiring process. The startup’s free recruiting software makes it easier for companies to post jobs to multiple boards, websites, and social networks and track all job candidates. It currently works with 50,000 customers who have created 250,000 jobs and attracted 10 million candidates to date. Rembrandt Venture Partners led this round, with participation from Mayfield Fund which led the company’s first round of $6.5 million. Read more on VentureBeat.

Drivewyze seals $7.5M deal

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Transportation tech company Drivewyze, along with sister company Intelligent Imaging Systems, has raised a big old first round of funding in the amount of $7.5 million. IIS makes products to increase road safety. Drivewyze was originally a division of IIS and was spun out into its own company. The startup makes mobile products that allow truckers to bypass weigh stations, saving them lots of time and keeping us all safe from those ghastly onramp merges. Ten four on that, good buddy!

Nanotech gets $3.9M for its butterfly-inspired counterfeit technology

Nanotech Security, an anti-counterfeit technology company, raised $3.9 million for its “nano-optics” that are modeled after butterfly wings. Nanotech’s nano-optics are intended to protect sensitive items such as bank notes and passports all the way to purses and often-counterfeited products. The funding, however, is being held until Nanotech is able to complete “two patent-entity acquisitions.” Investors were not disclosed. Read more on VentureBeat.

No more red ink! This startup just got $2M to help students perfect their grammar

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The latest online education startup to receive funding? NoRedInk, a web-based application that helps students improve their spelling and grammar. NoRedInk’s founder and chief executive Jeff Scheur is a former high school English teacher who disliked grading assignments with a red pen. His students would too frequently ignore feedback when delivered this way. This first round of funding came from Google Ventures, Social+Capital, Learn Capital, Charles River Ventures, among others. Read more on VentureBeat. 

Cluster raises $1.6M

Kevin Rose (Google Ventures) and Shervin Pishevar (Sherpa Foundry, formerly Menlo Ventures), and a handful of other angel-tier firms have poured $1.6 million into Cluster, a startup that’s not as screwed up as it sounds. Cluster’s product is a mobile app (iOS only, sorry Android losers!) that lets you “build social photo albums with friends.” This idea has been done and done and stick a fork in it it’s done to death, but what the hey. Cluster could be the one to make it work. Until Facebook adds a collaboration feature to its albums.

Kamcord crosses 1 billion mobile gameplay video recordings and raises $1M

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In-app gameplay recording reached a new milestone recently at tech company Kamcord. The firm is reporting that it crossed over 1 billion total videos recorded using its software. Kamcord offers a simple-to-implement solution for developers to add gameplay recording and sharing to their mobile titles. Kamcord revealed that it raised $1 million in seed funding for a total of $2.5 million. Chinese Internet company Tencent and investment firm Innovation Works led the round. Read more on VentureBeat.