Seed
A data platform for venture investing, Mattermark, has secured $2 million in seed funding from returning investor Andreessen Horowitz, among others. Launched in 2013, Mattermark aggregates data from Twitter, LinkedIn, SEC filings, Angel List, CrunchBase, news sites, and the company’s own proprietary Startup Index to allow customers to track existing start-ups and potential new opportunities.
Series A
YikYak, an anonymous bulletin board app that restricts who has access to the forum to a 1.5 mile radius, has raised $10 million to expand its team, enhance its iOS and Android apps, and increase marketing. The investment was led by DCM, with additional participation coming from RenRen Lianhe Holdings, venture capitalist Tim Draper, and previous investor Azure Capital Partners. Unlike Whisper or Secret, which have also received substantial VC backing, YikYak does not ask for any personal information in order to sign-up. The app was founded by Brooks Buffington and Tyler Droll while they were fraternity brothers at Furman and has proven to be particularly popular among college students, with 250 campuses now having their own forum, up from 100 in April.
Series C
New York-based Chloe + Isabel, an e-commerce platform that allows users to become their own jewelry retailers, has announced it has raised a $15 million Series C round. Lead investor SoftBank Capital was joined by existing investors General Catalyst, First Round Capital, Forerunner Ventures, and Floodgate. The funding from SoftBank, an affiliate of the Tokyo-based Internet, media, and telecom titan SoftBank Group, should help the company achieve its stated goal of expanding into Asia while pursuing other verticals like handbags and beauty products.
The company has now raised $32.5 million since being founded in 2011.
Funding
MapR Technologies, a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of big data software based on the open-source Apache Hadoop framework, has finalized a $110 million round of funding made up of a mix of equity and debt financing. The $80 million in equity is led by Google Capital, the company’s $300 million growth-stage investment fund, and Qualcomm Ventures, with additional support coming from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, NEA, and Redpoint Ventures. The remaining $30 million in debt comes from Silicon Valley Bank. “MapR helps companies around the world deploy Hadoop rapidly and reliably, generating significant business results,” said Gene Frantz, a general partner at Google Capital who will join the company’s Board of Directors, “We led this round of funding because we believe MapR has a great solution for enterprise customers, and they’ve built a strong and growing business.” MapR Technologies has now raised $174 million since being founded in 2009.
A UK-based company called Osperthat is building a branchless, mobile-only bank to help children manage money from their parents has raised €6 million from investors with impressive track records for backing European start-ups. Index Ventures, an early investor in SoundCloud and Etsy, was joined by Li Ka-Shing’s VC arm Horizons Ventures, a backer of Spotify and Skype, and a number of individual entrepreneurs and financiers. Osper raised its first €800,000 after participating in TechStars London 2013.