Thursday, April 12, 2012

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LoveThis Launches Social Recommendation 'Anti-App' By Adding Facebook, Email Tips To The Mix Top
lovethis_logo-114aa16b90eeaa731404742cc32f9a2eFeeling overloaded by social recommendation apps? Get ready for another one hitting the market, although this one says it will come with a twist: LoveThis, the social recommendation service that launched last year with $2 million in funding, today has launched an iOS app to let friends recommend across 10 categories, from books and films to places to eat. But unlike apps like Amen or Foursquare that rely on people using the app to suggest or tag things, this one says it will also take into account recommendations made by contacts elsewhere, such as Facebook and email, who do not have to be signed up to LoveThis to put their two cents into the mex. And, unlike many other apps that focus first on scale before trying to work in the business model, Alex Dormandy, the CEO of the company, says LoveThis already has a plan here, too. LoveThis is free to use, but the idea will be that something recommended through LoveThis can subsequently be bought via the app. It's not there yet but is in the works.
 
Viadeo Raises $32M To Expand Its Professional Social Network In China, Russia And Beyond Top
Viadeo-logoParis-based business social networking site Viadeo may have put a planned IPO into a holding pattern last year, but it is not having any trouble raising capital elsewhere as it forges ahead with its international expansion. Today, it has announced that it has picked up funding worth $32 million -- one of the largest recent tech investments in Europe and the biggest ever for a social network in the region. Investors in this round included government-backed funds the French Sovereign Wealth Fund and the Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement; institutional shareholders Idinvest and Ventech; and several new investors such as Allianz, Jefferies, and Middle Eastern private funds. This most recent round of funding, Viadeo's fourth, takes the total amount invested in the company to $50.2 million.
 
Instagram Aftermath: It's Time For Entrepreneurs To Go All In Top
poker chipsQ: What does the Instagram acquisition mean for startups? A: A LOT. At the close of 2011, there was a lot of uncertainty for startups. Stock market fluctuations, underwhelming talent acquisitions ("acqui-hires"), and structural investment problems threatened the prospects for startups.
 
Walkie Talkie App Voxer Goes Big, IVP And Intel Lead $30 Million Round Top
1_PTT_webVoxer, a walkie talkie mobile app that lets you talk to friends across iPhones and Androids, looked like an overnight success last November when it soared to its current place as a top social networking app in the app stores. But the company is five years old and has been working hard to figure out the software and design it needed to win big. It's ready to go all the way, having just closed a funding round of more than $30 million led by Institutional Venture Partners, Intel Capital and numerous angels, I've heard from multiple source. The company has confirmed the amount and agreed to share more -- but it didn't confirm the valuation, which I hear ended up at $180 million pre-money after a couple months of discussions with many interested investors.
 
InnoSpring Launches First U.S.-China Accelerator & Seed Fund, Backed By Kleiner Perkins & More Top
Screen shot 2012-04-11 at 5.39.43 PMAs research from the Startup Genome is beginning to show, the world has become a global entrepreneurial playing field, as cities from Tel Aviv to Santiago evolve into thriving startup ecosystems, becoming both regional and global engines of job creation. With such a large, increasingly internet-connected population, China, too, has become an important part of this conversation for web startups. (See TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing.) In spite of the huge market opportunities, however, historically it's been tricky for foreign technology businesses to gain significant traction inside the Eastern power. Today, a consortium of Chinese and American financial institutions are looking to change that by launching Silicon Valley's first U.S.-China tech accelerator, called InnoSpring. The new incubator officially opened its doors today, giving the world a sneak peek at its first batch of 12 startups, which will be making their home in the company's new 13,500 square-foot facility in Santa Clara, California.
 
Adfonic Announces TV-Style Mobile Ad Units Top
adfonic_video_forprint (1)London-headquartered Adfonic is getting into the video side of the mobile ad business today with the launch of its first video ad units. Chief Marketing Officer Paul Childs says that as smartphone and tablet usage grows, advertisers should be able to treat mobile as just another channel for their campaigns — so Adfonic wants to provide an easy way for them to bring the video content they're already creating for TVs and movie theaters onto mobile.
 
Spotted: A TV Commercial For Payments Company Square Top
SquareI just happened to have my TV turned to the Cooking Channel (which part of the Food Network) and saw a commercial for payments platform Square. This appears to be the first big commercial ad push for Square on TV. I've contacted Square for confirmation. The commercial was pretty straightforward and featured a number of merchants that all use Square to accept credit card payments, including a hair stylist, tailor and mechanic. The commercial showed the merchants actually swiping cards from customers, e-signatures on the app, and mentioned that Square can be used on Android and iPhones.
 
Flower Subscription Service H.Bloom Raises $10 Million Top
hbloom_logoSubscription flower delivery Service H.Bloom, which once described itself as the 'Netflix of Flowers,' raised a $10 million Series B funding round today. The investment was lead by Shasta Ventures with the participation of a number of existing VC funds and angel investors, including Battery Ventures, Thomas Lehrman of Gerson Lerhman Group, and ShoeDazzle's Brian Lee. Shasta's Sean Flynn is also joining the H.Bloom board. In total, including this round, H.Bloom has now raised $18 million.
 
The Hunt For An 'Instagram For Video' Is On, And Socialcam Wants The Crown Top
Screen shot 2012-04-11 at 4.36.20 PMBy all accounts, Y Combinator's latest Demo Day held last month for its Winter 2012 class was a biggie. With 66 companies presenting their apps, it was pretty impossible to name a startup that was the clear star of the group. But judging from the buzz I've heard over the past few weeks, Socialcam, a mobile app for shooting, editing, and sharing smartphone videos, certainly emerged as one of the standout companies from this latest YC batch -- at least in the eyes of the venture capital investor set. That's why we were pleased have the chance to talk with Socialcam's co-founder and CEO Michael Seibel last week when we visited Founders Den, the co-working space in downtown San Francisco. Watch the interview above to hear Seibel talk about how Socialcam looks at growth just two weeks at a time, why they chose to work in Founders Den rather than renting out their own office, why now is an extremely good time to be a tech startup founder, and more. Of course, something big has happened since we sat down with Seibel: Now that Instagram has been snapped up by Facebook in an eye-popping $1 billion deal, it's become even more clear that the excitement around apps like Socialcam may just be getting started.
 
Why Does The New Google+ Use So Much Whitespace? Top
whitespace_penguinsGoogle launched a massive redesign of Google+ earlier today. The reaction to this new interface for the company's fledgling social network have been generally positive, but most users are somewhat confused about why there is suddenly so much whitespace on the site. Indeed, the #whitespace hashtag is currently trending on the site and it's probably the most discussed "feature" of the new design. I think there is a reason behind this madness, though.
 
Samsung's $249 Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 To Make U.S. Debut On April 22, We Go Hands-On Top
gt1Samsung teased the masses this past February when they revealed that one of their first Ice Cream Sandwich-powered tablets would be the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, a decidedly mid-range device that seemed lacking in the style department. At the time, Samsung made it known that the Tab would arrive in the U.K. Before trickling down to the rest of the world, a plan that didn't really pan out. These days, Samsung has been a bit more forthcoming with details for the U.S. market, and the company has just recently given me what I've been waiting for: a price and a release date. The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 will officially launch in the United States on April 22 with a pretty enticing $249 price tag attached to it. I'll be posting a more comprehensive review of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 after I've gotten the chance to play with it for more than a day, but here are a few of a my first impressions.
 
Condé Nast Buys Recipe Startup ZipList Top
ziplistPublisher Condé Nast has acquired ZipList, an online service that allows users to save recipes and turn them into ingredient shopping lists. AllThingsD's Peter Kafka is reporting that the acquisition price was $14 million, including earnouts for some employees. I've asked a company spokesperson to confirm the amount, but I haven't heard back.
 
TC Live From The Richmond Mini-Meet Up Top
scaled.IMG_8411Here we go: it's the last night of our whirlwind Virginia tour and this time we're in Richmond, home of the Fan District, Altria (everyone's favorite tobacco company), and our friends at Snagajob. It looks like this town is just started to unwind a little and consider entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to the corporate life so we're pretty excited to be here. We'll be doing full posts on most of the folks we met on our journey and until then, enjoy these views of Snagajob's handsome slide and orange/orange color scheme. If you're in town, head down.
 
Intuit Acquires Mobile Payments Company AisleBuyer, Will Integrate Into GoPayment, POS Solutions Top
aislebuyer-appAisleBuyer, makers of a virtual shopping assistant app that lets in-store customers bypass checkout lines by paying directly on their mobile phone, has been acquired by Intuit. The Boston-based startup will be joining Intuit's payments team, where their technology will be used to transition Intuit's existing point-of-sale solutions as well as Intuit's Square competitor GoPayment to the cloud. The solution will also be opened up to Intuit's own developers as well as third-party developers, according to the company.
 
Jim Gaffigan Releases His Own, All-New Special, Cutting Out The Media Middleman Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-11 at 5.13.58 PMAmerica's favorite funnyboy [citation needed], Jim Gaffigan, has just released his new special, Mr. Universe, in download and streaming formats. For $5 you get three SD or HD downloads or three streaming sessions for your content consumption comfort. You can pay with PayPal or Amazon check-out.
 
Farewell, App Store? Netizine Turns Magazines Into Social Networks, Runs On HTML5 Top
netizineAs e-book publishers and Apple face an antitrust lawsuit over pricing, magazine publishers are now looking into an alternative solution to the digital pricing dilemma: being able to extricate themselves from Apple's grip entirely. A startup called Netizine, makers of a new, tablet-ready social magazine platform for publishers is currently in talks with seven of the ten top global publishers, we're told, including three of the top five in the U.S. And what is Netizine offering? Only a fully functional, HTML5-based tablet application that turns digital magazines into social networks...networks that run outside the App Store, that is.
 
Study: Half Of The Top 100 Blogs Now Use WordPress Top
wordpress-logoWordPress - both in its hosted and self-hosted forms - has long been among the most popular platforms for personal and professional blogs (and it's what we use here at TechCrunch, too). Looking at the top 100 blogs in Technorati's index, a new study by website monitoring firm Pingdom found that 49% of the top 100 blogs now use WordPress. That's up from 32% in 2009. No other platform even comes close.
 
Keen On… Politics: How The Internet Offers The Opportunity To Create We-Government [TCTV] Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-11 at 11.38.20 AMThere are few more articulate or passionate commentators on digital politics than Andrew Rasiej, the founder and CEO of Personal Democracy Media and the organizer of the upcoming Personal Democracy Forum. As Rasiej told me when we talked in New York City earlier this month, the Internet offers the opportunity to create what he calls "we-government" - a much more accountable and transparent form of 21st century politics than the type of governance that existed in the 20th century. But for this to happen, Rasiej reminded me, politicians need to be able to distinguish between "a server and a waiter" and we need to dilute the impact of money on our political process.
 
Bubble Motion Brings Voice Blogging App To Android Top
bubbleBubble Motion, which offers a popular a Twitter-like voice blogging service in India, Japan, and Indonesia, is debuting its Android app today, as well as launching an iOS app globally. Bubble Motion's Bubbly platform is a voice-blogging phone service that allows people to share status updates in their own voice with fans and followers. It essentially takes Twitter's model and applies this to voice blogging and mobile phones. These 'bubblers' record their voice update into their phone, and their followers everywhere are notified by SMS and prompted to click and listen. Last year, the company raised $10 million in new funding from SingTel Innov8, Infocomm Investments, Sequoia Capital, Palomar Ventures, and NGC.
 
Yammer Buys OneDrum To Add Collaborative Microsoft Office Editing To Enterprise Social Network Top
oneyamFlush with $85 million in new funding, Yammer is spending some of its newly minted cash today with the acquisition of OneDrum, a Scotland-based startup that allows you to co-author, file share and interact with Microsoft Office documents in real-time. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Yammer founder and CEO David Sacks jokingly said in an interview today it was less than Instagram's $1 billion acquisition by Facebook earlier this week. All of OneDrum's employees will join Yammer, with CEO Jasper Westaway leading the integration of the two products. OneDrum, which has raised $2 million in funding from Amadeus Capital Partners, UK Technology Strategy Board and Scottish Enterprise; adds secure, synchronized file sharing and collaboration (version management, multi-author document creation and editing, and communication and co-ordination tools) to existing Microsoft Office applications.
 

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