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Advertising - Thursday, May 29, 2008

Comscore Pays $44.3M For M:Metrics

Thumb ComScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) is paying $44.3M for Seattle's M:Metrics. What Comscore does for Web Measurement, M:Metrics does for mobile. M:Metrics will tell you things like: + "Americans Spend More than 4.5 Hours Per Month Browsing on Smartphones, Nearly Double the Rate of the British." + "Mobile entertainment is popular among the Chinese, with an astonishing 34.8% reporting they listened to mobile music in the month. M:Metrics had raised around $17M from VC firms led by Prism VentureWorks and i-Hatch Ventures. The startup was founded by Will Hodgman in early 2004. Hodgman was president and CEO of Sightward, which was sold to Digital Connexxions, and he was EVP of NetRatings. View - site... Continue...

Social Networking - Thursday, May 29, 2008

SocNet Advertising's Xtract Raises Euros3.5M

Thumb Finland's Xtract, which has set its guns on social advertising intelligence, has raised EUR 3.5M led by Creandum with return backer Eqvitec. Xtract says is has over 50 customers including big like Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to startups like BLYK and Fonecta. Xtract is a customer analytics solution provider for mobile operators and Internet communities. Xtract sells the promise of giving meaning and life to raw customer data by optimizing campaigning and advertising in both mobile and internet communities. It seems like a promising market but we we see here sounds more like consulting and positioning than technology. Not really sure what the Xtract founders are talking about here but if you need to get a flavor, here you have a recent prezo View - site... Continue...

Wireless - Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Tmobile Goes With Pelago Wireless SocNet In $15M Round

Thumb Seattle's Pelago has raised $15M to expand its mobile social networking application, Whrrl, in Europe and Asia. Whrrl allows cell phone users to spot their friends' locations on a map thanks to GPS. Whrrl on Facebook Whrrl on Blackberry The apps look neat and sure the market is promising but Whrrl is early stage with a very limited users base. Much of the excitement around Pelago surrounds its CEO and founder Jeff Holden who can claim some credit for the success of Amazon.com. He was SVP, Worldwide Discovery and SVP, Consumer Applications. He was more or less a founder of Amazon having been there since 1997. The $15M for Pelago comes from Deutsche Telekom, India's Reliance Technology Ventures, DAG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Trilogy Equity Partners and Bezos Expeditions. View - site... Continue...

More Recent Articles

United Sample Raises $1.29M

Tuesday May 27, 2008

Encino-based online sampling service United Sample has raised $1.29M in Series A says PEHub. The company will pay you $5 via PaypalWhat is a sampling service? United Sampling is currently running an offer to young Canadian males to sample beers. If you fit this description and will fill out a survey they will pay you $5 via Paypal. United Sample is led by Mathew Dusig and Gregg Lavin who had founded a similar service called GoZing. Lavin was also SVP, Online Marketing at Greenfield Online, co-founder of Webtigo and has another startup going called File123. Dusig is the other co-founder of Webtigo. Backers of United Sample are DFJ Frontier Fund and Webtigo. View - site...

Chicago's Crowdspring Launches With $3M From Angels For Graphic Design Marketplace

Friday May 23, 2008

Chicago-based Crowdspring has raised $3M from 16 angels and his launched its marketplace for graphic designers. The service has graphic designers bid to win business to create logos and site designs and takes a 15% for the trouble. Several have commented that this is a highly competitive business online. At the same time there is lots of business here to be had so if Crowdspring can get better at marketing to buyers and bidders all power to them. We have expressed our pessimism for all tech startups that hail from Chicago. Our hunch is always that the staff will call it quits once the winter kicks in, but $3M should get the 6 of them through the Winter of 2009. View - site...

EA Buys Korean Cell Phone Game Maker Hands-On Mobile

Friday May 23, 2008

Electronic Arts is buying Korea's Hands-On Mobile Korea for an undisclosed amount. Hands-on makes a role-playing game for mobile devices. Hands-on is the developer of Heroes Lore, a mobile role-playing game. Pretty frickin' annoying video summary of Heroes Lore...

Russian In-game Advertising Firm Enter Media Raises $1M

Thursday May 22, 2008

Russia's Enter Media has raised funding from Skype investor Mangrove Capital Partners and ABRT Fund. Quintura says the amount of the funding may be around $1M. This seems like a very early investment for a tiny Russian market. We had assumed this was a technology company looking to go global but it appears at this point that Enter Media is really just putting its arms around Russian gamers. View - site...