TECH CRUNCH — Oct 15 — Ignighter, the group dating site that is part of the TechStars class of 2008, has closed a $1.2m angel funding round. CEO Adam Sachs says that the money will be used to expand its development staff, and will also be used for a marketing push to increase awareness. Ignighter allows small groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile, where they can include photos and specify their interests. The site then presents a list of possible matches with other groups and helps them arrange get-togethers in the real world. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Category: All Investment Raises
SpeedDate.com Secures $6 Million
PRESS RELEASE — Aug 28 — SpeedDate.com, the online speed dating service, has secured $6m in Series B funding from Menlo Ventures. SpeedDate will use this funding to further grow its user base, expand operations, and enhance SpeedDate.com's functionality. The site launched in October '07. SpeedDate.com allows singles to meet each other through 3-minute online speed dates using webcams, audio, and instant messaging.
See all posts on SpeedDate
Zoosk Completes Second Round Of Funding
PR WEB — June 12 — Zoosk, a dating application built for social networks, has completed its second round of funding, raising $4.1m. The round was led by Canaan Partners and included ATA Ventures. Zoosk will use the funds to expand its marketing efforts, increase its subscriber base across additional social networks and develop compelling new features for its network. Zoosk integrates with social networks including Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
WooMe Raises Funding
PRESS RELEASE — June 12 — WooMe, the online video speed-dating service, raised a $12,5m round led by Index Ventures with existing investors Atomico and Mangrove Capital Partners also participating. The new capital will go toward supporting user growth, expanding internationally and introducing new functionality to the site.
The full article was originally published at Earth Times, but is no longer available.
Like Jangl, TalkPlus Losing Its Voice As Well
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
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
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
RED 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
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
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)