Osmo, the iPad-powered gaming device built by former Googlers (and dads) as a way to turn tablets into more “hands-on” toys, has raised $12 million in Series A funding, the company is announcing today. The round was led by Accel Partners’ Rich Wong, and includes investment from Upfront Ventures and K9 Ventures. The company is also announcing that its products, which are currently available for sale online, will also be made available in 284 Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s a list of today’s biggest funding stories, updated as the day unfolds. Tip us here if you have a deal to share and remember to check back for updates!
Seattle startup VoloMetrix is helping large companies answer one of the most fundamental questions a business faces: How do the most effective employees spend their time?
The company has raised $12 million from Split Rock Partners and prior investor Shasta Ventures to build a sales and marketing organization to get its “people analytics” software into the hands of more customers.
Enterprise might just be the most exciting area in tech today. While enterprise isn’t always as flashy as consumer-facing services, enterprise startups have the potential to not only reach profitability more quickly, but to also create groundbreaking solutions on a large scale.
A good enterprise startup has the potential to transform how an entire industry does business — and, in turn, change how consumers interact with these industries.
Here are a few of my favorite enterprise startups you should be watching and why I think they’re excellent examples of what enterprise startups can achieve.
Mobile data startup mParticle has raised $1.5 million in an additional round of seed funding.
The company, which says it previously raised $4.5 million, is working to become the data integration platform for mobile developers. In other words, instead of installing a bunch of different SDKs to collect data, app developers can just integrate with mParticle.
The platform will then take care of gathering the data and passing it on to different services. That, in turn, means the developer can try out new services without worrying about hurting the performance of their app or going through the App Store approval process each time.
Marketing startup BrightFunnel is announcing that it has raised $2.5 million in seed funding.
I last wrote about the company in January, after it raised an “advisory round” totaling what co-founder and CEO Nadim Hossain said was just under $1 million.
Mobile messaging startup Avaamo, which was built by former TIBCO execs and has raised $6.3 million, wants to provide an app for enterprise communications that is both simple to use and secure.
Consider Avaamo one more app to take part in the “consumerization of enterprise” trend by building a business-grade messaging app that looks a hell of a lot more like something a user might download to text with friends. Behind the scenes, though, Avaamo has a lot of features that are necessary for enterprise users.
Tech startups are raising rounds within a year more frequently in 2014 than any prior year. Burn rates going up? Or are they just taking advantage of an easy financing market?
If companies are burning more money these days (expenses > revenues), is that forcing them to raise money more quickly?
