Category: All Investment Raises

Like Jangl, TalkPlus Losing Its Voice As Well

Posted on May 9, 2008

Janglkratkelogo GIGAOM — May 7 — Michael Cerda, former CEO of Jangl along with the cofounder, Ben Dean and three other Jangl employees is joining Jajah. "The company was finding its groove in the marketplace, but our investors though it wasn't enough for us to keep going, and decided not to fund us", Cerda said. Jangl had raised about $9m in VC funding from Storm Ventures, Labrador Ventures and Cardinal Ventures. Cerda explains the rise and fall of Jangl on his blog. Jangl is not the only VoIP company to nosedive. We have heard from reliable sources that TalkPlus, is going nowhere fast. Michael Toepel, who was the CEO recently left, after the company failed to get new investment to keep going. 

The full article was originally published at GigaOm, but is no longer available.

Avoid Online Rejection, Get Your Friends Involved

Posted on April 11, 2008

Engage_logo_nove
TECH CRUNCH — Apr 10 — Engage differentiates itself from traditional
dating sites by getting friends involved in the process
of finding that perfect match. These friends are there to help break
the ice and determine
who's worth the time. They can suggest people or write recommendations
and introductory notes. Engage raised $5M in Series A from Advanced
Tech Ventures in 2006.
The site will remain free until Q4 2008, at which point it will cost
around $20/mo. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Engage’s Second Generation Dating Service

Posted on April 8, 2008

Engage_logo
VENTURE
BEAT — Apr 7 — Engage (262,000 unique
visitors in March) is the first "second generation social dating site",
said Trish McDermott, the company's vice president. It provides a place
for mingling, mixing,
matching and flirting. To be a matchmaker on the site, users cast their
votes to suggest couples, or use the Play Matchmaker
feature, which lets them introduce their friends to dating candidates.
Users earn social points by being active. Engage took over
$5m from Advanced Technology Ventures, the Founders Fund, and
Revolution Ventures, with its second round closing two years ago. FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT

Iovation Secures $15M

Posted on March 28, 2008

IovationlogoRED HERRING — Mar 27 — Fraud protection service firm Iovation capped a $15m funding round with a $5m investment from SAP Ventures and European Founders. The initial $10m investment was made by Intel Capital. iovation markets a hosted service which tracks and identifies the devices used by people to commit online fraud on commercial sites or to harass users of social networking and dating sites. The company also creates a database of suspect devices gleaned from each of its customers which is then shared among all of Iovation's customers.

The full article was originally published at Red Herring, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Wow! This is one of the biggest votes of confidence I've ever seen. I'm proud to have iovation as a client (of Courtland Brooks), and a sponsor of Online Personals Watch and Social Networking Watch. If you would like to wipe out scamming activity on your dating or social networking site, iovation is the way to go. You can email me at mark@courtlandbrooks.com to schedule a 45 minute introductory demo of iovation's dating and SNS products.

iovation Expands Its Executive Team

Posted on February 27, 2008

Iovationlogo
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 27 — iovation, the device reputation authority
for the Internet, announced two new executive appointments. Chris Reid
and Emmett Zahn have joined iovation as VP Sales and VP Technology.
Iovation’s innovative technology helps online companies stop tens of
thousands of fraudulent transactions each day, while protecting the
privacy and anonymity of their customers. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: iovation is a client of Courtland Brooks, and a client in very good standing. This company, and the people at this company have been nothing but totally professional, always follow through, and with the full weight of whatever reputation I’ve built since starting OPW, I can’t recommend them highly enough. I guess that’s why Intel saw fit to pitch $10 million in their direction
recently.

iovation Helps Stop 10,000 Frauds Per Day

Posted on February 18, 2008
Iovationlogo
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 13 — iovation, the
device reputation authority for the Internet, is currently helping its
online customers stop more than 10,000 fraudulent activities per day
using its device-based fraud management solution. The company expects
that number to nearly double by the end of 2008. Using patented
technology, iovation’s ReputationManager™ fraud management service
uniquely identifies devices that have been used for fraud and abuse. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: iovation offers a device
identification platform and a means to share the reputation of those
‘devices’ industry wide.  I’ve worked with iovation to help them sign
up an initial batch of dating sites that are now feeding the iovation
system. iovation recently raised $10 million from Intel Capital. (Full Disclosure: iovation is a client of Courtland Brooks)

WooMe Woos Another $3 Million

Posted on February 8, 2008

Woome_logo NEWTEEVE — Feb 7 — Online speed dating site WooMe received a $3 million bridge round of financing led by Mangrove, along with previous investors Atomico, Klaus Hammels and newcomer Oliver Jung. This builds on the initial $1.9 million in seed funding WooMe previously raised. The service launched 10 weeks ago and according to Co-founder and CEO, Stephen Stokols, WooMe has facilitated more than 35,000 sessions so far.

The full article was originally published at NewTeeve, but is no longer available.

BharatMatrimony Raises $11.75m

Posted on February 7, 2008

Bharatlogo PRESS RELEASE — Feb 6 — Consim, formerly known as BharatMatrimony, has closed its second round of investment of USD $ 11.75 million led by Mayfield Fund and participation from existing investors, Yahoo! and Canaan Partners. Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder & CEO, Consim Info, said, "We plan to leverage this fund to expand our matrimony business in the international markets and to strengthen our other classifieds offerings. We believe that the global knowledge and experience of our investors will help us scale our business strategically."

The full article was originally published at Tech Whack, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: BharatMatrimony competes head on with Shaadi in India for matrimonials dating.

Iovation Gets $10 Million Intel Investment

Posted on November 13, 2007

Iovation
PRESS RELEASE — Nov 13 — Intel Capital announced a $10 million investment in iovation, a company which provides online security and fraud protection services to internet dating companies, amongst others. iovation's real-time service prevents click fraud, identity theft, phishing, and charge-backs, as well as abuses such as child predation. The company, which gets 450 million reputation inquiries each year, has customers in social networking, financial services and e-commerce. Intel's investment will be used to accelerate the development of next-generation fraud and abuse management solutions, broaden the company's intellectual property and propel the evolution of online trust. FULL ARTICLE @ BIZ JOURNALS

Mark Brooks: (Disclosure: iovation is a client of Courtland Brooks). There are two sides to what iovation does.  Firstly they id devices (computers). Secondly they allow dating sites and SNS to share the 'reputation' of those  devices in one network. Intels round of funding is a huge vote of confidence in iovation's technology. iovation has several clients in the dating space…and counting.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

ModelsHotel: The Hot Social Network You’ll Never Join

Posted on September 11, 2007

Modelshotel_logoTECH CRUNCH — Sep 10 — ModelsHotel is an invitation-only social network for professional models. High-end advertisers are targeting the selective site, which has granted access to only 1,000 trendsetters. The year-old site, which offers standard social networking features, is trying to raise $1.5 million in venture capital. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Mark Brooks: Nice idea, nada traffic. Another spin on 'rich guys and cute dolls' niche dating that seems to be all the rage right now. I.e. WealthyMen.com, MillionaireMate.com, Cashcats.com, MillionaireFriends.com, also aSmallWorld.com.