It all started from the concept of a slippery slope. Combine the snowball effect online shopping can have on susceptible consumers (present company included), a company founded in the Swiss Alps, and an iPad app vaguely reminiscent of snow, and my Funding Daily horizon was filled with mountainous peaks. Let’s see which companies set off on the trails of venture capital.

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RichRelevance racks up $8M to make the slippery slope of online shopping even slipperier 

RichRelevance completed its full, fifth round of financing today with a final $8 million from RTP Ventures, Shea Ventures, and Gray Ventures, as well money from existing investor Tugboat Ventures.

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The total round came to $28 million, with the first $20 million coming from Greylock Partners, Crosslink Capital, and Draper Fisher Jurveston in May. To date, RichRelevance has raised almost $58 million dollars.

RichRelevance powers personalized shopping recommendations for large online retailers. Major retailers like Walmart, Sears, and Target use this technology to recommend the most relevant products to consumers. If you have ever clicked on the “recommended products” conveniently placed on your screen while shopping online, this may be thanks to RichRelevance.

The company delivers over 850 million product recommendations a day and has generated more than $5.5 billion in attributable sales. RichRelevance is headquartered in San Francisco.

Khosla bets German efficiency applies to Big Data 

Khosla Ventures is feeling begeistert about its $5.6 million investment in ParStream, a real-time Big Data analytics engine that can rapidly filter, index, and analyze billions of records. Whatever the volume, ParStream promises to handle it. The round was also contributed to by Baker Capital, Crunch Fund, Data Collective, Tola Capital and private investors.

ParStream originated in Cologne and recently opened an office in Palo Alto, Calif. There have been no reports as to whether the team is out celebrating with Kolsch, but chances are they are too busy processing data and scaling their product to down a boot of beer. More for the rest of us.

Netsertive powers up the mountain with $10M more  

Ad tech firm Netsertive has collected $7.3 million in its second round of funding along with $2.5 million credit facility. Netsertive helps local businesses and franchises increase sales in their markets by providing digital advertising tools. The investment was led by Richmond firm Harbert Venture Partners and joined by previous investors RRE Ventures and Greycroft Partners. The debt financing was conducted with Square 1 Bank in Dusham, N.C.

This round follows a $4.5 million Series A from late 2010. Since then, Netsertive’s revenue has increased by seven times and it has hired 50 employees. With this recent funding, the company will continue to hire and grow the platform.

AnyPresence gets $5.5M to help nontech companies be mobile like skiers

AnyPresence, a cloud-based mobile platform provider, has received $5.5 million from DC firm Grotech Ventures. Existing investor Kinetic Ventures also participated in this second round. AnyPresence makes it easier for businesses to build, deploy, and maintain mobile applications. The company is currently works with customers in the healthcare, communications, and service sectors and will put the investment towards developing the product and growing sales. AnyPresence is based in Reston, Va.

Educreations takes off across snowy white slopes of ed-tech 

Educreations graduated from the bunny slope of investment to a green circle trail with $2.2 million in its first official round of institutional financing. Educreations makes an app that transforms the iPad into an interactive whiteboard. Lessons can be conducted via the program, which captures voice and handwriting to create videos.

Since launching six months ago, more than 50,000 teachers have used the app and in over 12,000 schools in 117 countries. With this investment, Educreations will expand its mobile platform. The company participated in Imagine k12, an accelerator program for education technology startups. This Series A was led by Accel Partners and NewSchools Venture Fund.

App Annie sings it has raised $6M from the mountaintops

App Annie, a company that provides app store data to developers and others, has just announced a $6 million round of funding. This is the startup’s second round of institutional funding and will be used in part to expand into new app stores. Participants in the current round include IDG, as well as e.ventures, Infinity Venture Partners, Kii Capital, angel investor Jarl Mohn, and Greycroft Partners, which led the Series B. Read more on VentureBeat.

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