Pinfluencer Debuts Enterprise Analytics Engine for Pinterest Secures $1.4 Million in Seed Funding

Posted Tue, 07/31/2012 - 06:28 by Tonja Aldis

San Mateo, Calif. – July 31, 2012 – Pinfluencer, a robust big-data analytics and discovery marketing engine for the Pinterest platform, today emerged from private beta to announce its official debut. By connecting businesses to their most influential brand advocates, Pinfluencer changes the way products are distributed, merchandised and promoted. Pinfluencer’s scalable, cloud-based data engine allows retailers, brands and publishers to capture the most comprehensive data generated daily by ‘pins’ and ‘repins.’ With Pinfluencer, companies can now truly take advantage of the opportunities provided by social commerce and leverage Pinterest to drive massive circulation of their content, resulting in greater website traffic and sales.

Humor Website 9GAG Launches New App, Receives $2.8 Million Seed Funding

Posted Mon, 07/30/2012 - 06:14 by Tonja Aldis

Investment Will Allow Company to Increase Staffing, Expand Internationally and Deliver Continued Platform Enhancements to Meet Exploding User Engagement

SAN FRANCISCO and HONG KONG, July 30, 2012 – 9GAG, the world’s largest and fastest growing online comedy community, today announced a new mobile app for its wildly popular irreverent and hilariously funny content. 9GAG’s new mobile app – named “9GAG” makes it even easier for people to quickly discover, express and share visual entertainment through photos and videos by delivering seamless access from nearly any mobile device, including both iOS and Android platforms. The only official mobile app from the creators of “9GAG” is available immediately from http://9gag.com/mobile and through the Apple App Store.

Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum: 2012-13 Angel & Venture Capital Financing Overview

Posted Thu, 07/26/2012 - 17:07 by kberzon

The beginning of 2012 saw continued strength in the early stage financing environment with valuations and the number of financings increasing. As the year has progressed, concerns about an over-heated investment market have been replaced with a perception of a weakening funding environment. 2011 was viewed by some as the year of the founder/entrepreneur and by others as the year of the “tech bubble” and excess valuations. However, in 2012 venture investment appears to have softened considerably and may be in a state of transition. Against this backdrop, the VC industry is undergoing profound changes. Please join our panel of expert angel and venture capital investors for a look at early stage investing during the past year and what the future investment environment holds.

New Crowdfunding Game Makes Startups the Stars

Posted Tue, 07/24/2012 - 20:19 by kevin

MicroVentures Launches First-Ever Facebook Game with a Venture Capital Theme, Allows Players to Back Real Startups, Compete Against Friends

Austin, TX – July 24, 2012 — MicroVentures, the nation’s leading equity crowdfunding platform, today announced the launch of MicroVentures Investor Challenge — a Facebook game in which real startups like AirBnB, Etsy, and Pinterest compete for a player’s virtual investment.

In Investor Challenge, real startups face off in six weekly rounds and players are in the role of venture capitalist, with $1,000,000 “microbucks” to invest in favorites like Foursquare and Taskrabbit. The startup that commands the most total investment from players advances to the next round where it faces off against a new opponent. At the end of the tournament, one startup emerges victorious, and one investor, too.

Lost in Translations Inc. acquires Chinese online learning service

Posted Tue, 07/10/2012 - 11:26 by lost_in_transl

Beijing, China - Lost in Translations Inc., a cloud based localization company, announced today that it acquired a Chinese online language learning service. The service, “Teach me Language”, has been developed over several years, and the founders saw the opportunity to commercialize the service. “We see vast demand in studying online and learning English, especially in Asia,” states Mika Jordman, Co-founder & CEO of Lost in Translations Inc. “We will launch with Chinese and English first, and more languages will follow soon after” he continues.

Global Reviews Raises Raises $600k in Growth Capital

Posted Mon, 07/09/2012 - 21:10 by adirshiffman

Melbourne, Australia: One of Australia's most established internet companies, Global Reviews, has closed a $600,000 Series A equity raising.

Global Reviews was originally established in 2000, and now has offices in Australia and Europe with a roster of blue-chip clients. The company offers unparalleled industry data, competitor intelligence and behavioural insights to improve sales conversion, customer satisfaction and competitiveness online. It also analysing how and why consumers make omni- and multi-channel buying decisions; where they engage online, via the call centre, and in-store. For over a decade the company has worked with hundreds of companies across dozens of industries including finance, travel, retail, insurance, education, and energy.

Princess Sumaya honors the Winner of Intel Youth Enterprise Unemployment Challenge

Posted Wed, 06/20/2012 - 07:58 by farah.alfayez

June 20, 2012 Amman - HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of El Hassan Science City (EHSC) and the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), honored KolshiMedia, the winning project in the Intel Youth Enterprise Unemployment Challenge, launched by Intel Corporation in cooperation with Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) to prompt talented youth to deploy modern technologies to help in bringing down unemployment rates in the Kingdom.