Category: All Investment Raises

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.

People Interactive Considers A 2009 Public Offer

Posted on August 27, 2007

Shaadi_logoTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL — Aug 26 — People Interactive, the consumer Internet subsidiary of Mumbai-based People Group, is considering a 2009 public listing to finance acquisitions in the online classifieds and communities spaces. People Interactive, which owns matrimonial portal Shaadi and online dating service Fropper, may list either on NASDAQ or on the domestic bourses. In preparation for the public debut, the group will begin offering online services on the mobile platform. FULL ARTICLE @ THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Mark Brooks: Westbridge Capital Partners invested $8 million in Shaadi back in March – more info here. BharatMatrimony is the other leading matrimonials service in India, fyi. Murugavel Janakiraman aka Muru is the CEO/Founder.   

Transpera Launches, Twango Acquired, IceBreaker Raises $7m

Posted on July 26, 2007

Crushorflush_logoSEATTLE PI — July 24 — The launch of Transpera comes on the heels of Nokia's buyout of Redmond mobile photo and video startup Twango. Transpera is backed by IDG Ventures, Intel Capital and First Round Capital. IceBreaker, the Bellevue developer of the mobile dating service "Crush or Flush", has named David Laub as its chief financial officer. IceBreaker raised $7.2 million in venture funding last month. FULL ARTICLE @ SEATTLE PI

Meetmoi Raises $1.5M

Posted on June 8, 2007

PRESS RELEASE — June 7 — MeetMoi, a location based mobile dating service has completed a Series A round of financing by Acadia Woods Partners of $1.5M. Available on Cingular, Nextel, Boost, Sprint, T-Mobile, ALLTEL and CellularOne, the MeetMoi service allows registered members to meet and date other users simply by sending a text message from their phone with a specified location. MeetMoi then registers the user as "available" and sends the user's profile and photo via text message to other users who meet specified criteria and are within a proximity preference.

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

Gay.com Not For Sale

Posted on May 29, 2007

Gaycom_logo_06OPW — May 29 — A little birdie told me…”Also, update regarding PlanetOut, Inc. and Gay.com. Their investment banker, Allen & Co., said that no part of PlanetOut's business is currently for sale. Allen & Co. is a prior investor in the business and has confidence in the current management (and is being paid a fee in the form of warrants to buy 750,000 shares at $1.69 a share). They are confident they can raise the $15 MM cash to continue the business through this year and that the value will be there in the long run. Good luck to them and the Red Sox.  If shares recover to $5, they'll hit a home run.” Take a look at PlanetOut stock now.  Up from a low of 86c on Tuesday May 22nd to $1.39 now. Someone made a killing already. – Mark Brooks

Romance Blooms in Love21cn and Sina Partnership

Posted on May 25, 2007

Love21cn_2INTERFAX — May 23 — Chinese online matchmaking service provider Love21cn.com (5 million registered) will partner with Sina’s friends-making channel to integrate resources and expand businesses. Established in October 2003, Love21cn.com was one of the earliest matchmaking service providers in China and received a RMB 40 million ($5.2 million) investment last month from founders of Nasdaq-listed language school New Oriental Education and Technology Group to support its business expansion. “One of the challenges for running a Web site is to ensure the credibility of the information users provide," said Gong Haiyan, the Founder. "We have been very careful and have put a lot of effort into developing the user identity management system of our Web site. Users can file a complaint if they find someone submitting false information and we will block him or her from using our services." Revenue of China’s online matchmaking market is expected to reach RMB 653 million ($85.4 million) by 2008, with an average annual growth of 106% (iResearch).

PlanetOut Hopes to Stave Off Bankruptcy

Posted on May 23, 2007

PlanetoutPAID CONTENT — May 22 — The owners of PlanetOut hope to raise $15 million+ in new equity or subordinated debt as it tries to dig out from $26.5 million in debt. The trouble began two years ago when PlanetOut went on a shopping spree, acquiring the RSVP Vacations cruise business and LPI Publications, publishers of Out, OutTraveler, and The Advocate, as well as several pornographic magazines under the Specialty Publications brand. Several senior executives have resigned. Some of the problems besetting the company may be due to the migration of gay people to sites such as MySpace.

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

Mark Brooks: Advice to PlanetOut: Divest the magazines and travel companies and stick to your knitting, online content and memberships and advertising. PlanetOut has been too busy trying to fill cruise ships and sell magazine subscriptions to focus on the future. Manhunt.net (casual adult) and MyPartnerPerfect.com (about to be launched, serious dating) are biting at PlanetOut's heels.