Hootsuite was the big funding story of the day, raising a whopping $165 million round for its social media management platform and adorable owl logo. Mainly for the owl though.
Hootsuite nabs a massive $165M for ‘marketing and international expansion’
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":788209,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"entrepreneur,","session":"C"}']Social media management tool Hootsuite just closed an enormous financing round. The $165 million investment was led by Insight Venture Partners. Hootsuite claims to have 7 million customers (paid and nonpaid) who use its dashboard to manage multiple social media accounts. This money will likely provide the founders with some liquidity, which is increasingly common in venture deals of this scale. Facebook investor Accel Partners and existing equity holder OMERS Ventures also participated in the round, which will also be used to make a number of acquisitions. Read more on VentureBeat.
A trio of angels raise $39M to invest in early-stage tech startups
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A trio of angel investors just raised $39 million for new fund Initalized Capital, according to an SEC filing. Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and serial entrepreneurs Garry Tan and Harjeet Taggar now have a chunk of change to invest in early-stage tech startups across all sectors. The three partners are also ambassadors for accelerator program, Y Combinator. Read more on VentureBeat.
Analytics startup Tidemark scores another $13M to fight SAP, IBM, and Oracle
Enterprise performance management startup Tidemark has raised $13 million in new capital as it continues to grow and take on enterprise giants like SAP, Oracle, and IBM. Tidemark’s array of apps assist companies with financial planning, operational planning, and metrics management. The new funding was led by new investor Tenaya Capital, with participation from prior investors Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, and Redpoint Ventures. Including the new round, Tidemark has raised $48 million to date. Read more on VentureBeat.
Albumatic raises $4.2 million for more photo-sharing
Albumatic is a mobile app for collectively creating and sharing photo albums. Groups of friends can add photos from shared experiences and everyone has access to the content. GigaOm reported that the company has raised $4.2 million to gain traction with this version of the product, which is a simpler version of the photo app the company launched earlier this year. RRE Ventures, where Albumatic’s founder Adam Ludwin is a principal, led this round. Thrive Capital, SV Angel, Highline Venture Partners, CrunchFund, Box Group, and Betaworks contributed to this round.
Datorama secures $3M for ROI
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Big data marketing startup Datorama has taken a $3 million round of funding from Cedar Fund and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. This is the company’s first round of institutional funding. The Datorama platform lets marketers (not IT guys) see the real-time return on investment for all kinds of campaigns from a central source. One of the investors claimed that using Datorama can lead to a whopping 90 percent ROI spike. The startup has offices in New York, London, Tel Aviv and Sydney.
Security startup Synack raises $1.5M to crowdsource threat detection
Synack, a maker of security software, has raised a $1.5 million seed round. Synack makes a threat-detection system that uses crowdsourcing (from white-hat hackers, presumably) to help discover companies’ security weaknesses. Its founders formerly worked with the National Security Agency. The funding came from Kleiner Perkins, Greylock Partners, Wing Venture Partners, Allegis Capital, and Derek Smith, CEO of Shape Security. Read the press release.
Patreon raises $2.1M to help starving artists survive
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Patreon raised a seed round of $2.1 million to grow its funding platform that helps artists, YouTubers, musicians, writers etc… make money. Content creators set up pages for their work and their fans fund each piece of content. The goal is to form a community where artists and their fans interact and support each other, financialy and through shares and comments. Over 2000 creators have signed up and uploaded one 10,000 pieces of content since Patreon launched in May 2013. Investors include Tyler Willis, SVAngel, Charles River Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan, Atlas Ventures, and Rothenberg Ventures.
Mobile ad tech startup runs away with $1.5M
Run, a startup that provides a real-time ad management platform that works across multiple devices, has raised $1.5 million from Verizon Ventures. The company works with real time bidding exchanges as well as inventory sources to serve data-driven targeted ads. This is the New York company’s first round of funding, according to a report in TechCrunch.
BioBeats gets jiggy with $650K and Will Smith
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Biobeats has raised seed funding from investors including Will Smith and a slew of other elites in the entertainment business. BioBeats collects data on the heartbeats of music listeners through their smartphones. This app analyzes this information and generates music based on your unique heartbeat. BioBeat sis based in Los Angeles and London and will use this investment to build more tools the combine the worlds of health and music.
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