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New Media News Every Morning

Playfish raises $17 million

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Developer and publisher of games for social networks Playfish, a developer and publisher of games for social networks, announced today that it has completed a new round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The $17 million Series B investment will be used to continue Playfish’s mission to become the leading company in social games, a sector which promises to play an increasingly important role in the future of the gaming industry.

With more than 10 million monthly active users, Playfish enables people to play games with their real-world friends and family on the infrastructure provided by social networks.

Originally posted on October 28, 2008 @ 11:30 am

Citizen journalism site Helium raises $17 million in funding

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Helium has raised over $17M in Series A funding led by Signature Capital LLC and including Northport Private Equity. It is expected to help the citizen journalism hub continue to build tight partnerships with leading publishers and provide support for the launch of new digital media products.

Helium.com currently has community of over 150,000 writers, who cover everything from politics to parenting advice, to pop culture, to the environment and more. The company recently announced a change to Helium’s Terms of Service by which starred writers on Helium.com will receive upfront payments for all new articles in a move to reward the site’s highest quality writers and to promote quality content at Helium.com.

The website also features The Helium Marketplace, which is an on-demand custom content solution used by publishers looking for top-notch content for their publications. Helium also recently announced the launch of Media Solutions, a revolutionary way for newspapers to easily produce quality, custom, local and lifestyle content. Helium’s Media Solutions puts the power of citizen engagement behind media publications, giving them access to quality content that is cost-effective and easy to manage.

Originally posted on October 29, 2008 @ 10:07 am

ShopIt raises $2.5 million in funding to carry company until 2010

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Peer to peer social commerce provider Shopit has raised $2.5 million in Series B funding from new investors Emerson Ventures of Toronto, Canada.

Shopit will leverage its new funding to speed the development of its own advertising network and continue to roll out products and partnerships that facilitate commerce in communities all over the internet.

“In turbulent economic times, we are very pleased to have this backing from our investors, as it will enable us to continue our leadership in this exciting space,” said Matt Hill, CEO of Shopit. “This new funding will carry the company well into 2010, despite our plans to be profitable in mid 2009.” The financing commitment establishes a basis for which the company will prosper in a market where others may not, as pre-revenue or pre-profit companies.

Shopit is actively hiring more employees in the areas of advertising, sales and technology and is looking for talented and ambitious “go-getters” for its Los Angeles based headquarters.

Originally posted on October 21, 2008 @ 5:16 pm

AdMob raises $15.7 million funding to increase lead in mobile advertising

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AdMob announced that it has achieved cash flow positive results and secured a new $15.7 million Series C investment round, led by Sequoia Capital’s Growth Fund with existing investor Accel Partners participating, to expand its global leadership position. The company has experienced strong growth over the past year, more than tripling the number of ads served on a monthly basis to 4.5 billion in September 2008.

Fueled by this funding, AdMob will make significant strategic investments to increase the company’s clear lead in mobile advertising, including:

• Accelerating the growth of worldwide operations by hiring local staff in key markets and adding new language interfaces, with an emphasis in Western Europe, India, South Africa and Japan;

• Deepening the investment in the company’s mobile technology platform, including its targeting, optimization and ad serving algorithm;

• Expanding the breadth of offerings for both publishers and advertisers; and

• Increasing leadership position in the U.S. by growing AdMob’s sales and business development teams

AdMob also announced that its publisher network now includes more than 6,000 partners worldwide giving it an unmatched scale. New publishers in 2008 include MySpace and MovieTickets.com.

Originally posted on October 22, 2008 @ 6:59 am

Eventful secures $10 million from Telefonica

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Eventful has raised $10 million from lead investor Telefónica and existing investors, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Bay Partners.

Eventful will use the capital to extend its leadership position in the local events space through expanding sales and marketing, increasing its lead in the mobile channel and exploring international expansion opportunities.

“The strength and diversity of Eventful’s business, along with the proven ability of its executive team to create technologies that attract millions of users, make Eventful precisely the sort of investment we look for,” said Russ Shaw, Telefónica’s Global Director of Innovation.

Originally posted on October 15, 2008 @ 9:31 am