Venture Capital Update

Kenshoo, an Israel-based provider of online demand generation SaaS solutions for the enterprise and local markets announced today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from current return backer Sequoia Capital.

According to Michael Moritz, the Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital, KENSHOO is a proven company with great potential for growth in a large, highly dynamic market.

"The investment will also help us acquire additional talent to expand our offerings and deepen our relationships with our clients,” said Yoav Izhar Prato, CEO of KENSHOO. “The support of Sequoia Capital has been integral to our success thus far, and we will continue to value our partnership well into the future.”

Gazelle, a Boston-based and US largest “re-commerce” startup raised $12 million in Series C funding. Physic Ventures led the round and was backed up by return backers Venrock and RockPort Capital Partners.

The new funding also enables Gazelle to make additional investments in key areas of the business, including its proprietary pricing technologies and processes that continue to enhance the customer experience. Gazelle will also work with existing retail partners to build an in-store experience that brings reCommerce to physical retailer sites across the nation.

Trada, a Boulder, Colorado-based revolutionary pay-per-click system raised $5.75 million in Series C funding. Google Ventures led the round and was joined by return backer Foundry Group.

The funding will be used to for the expansion of Trada's marketplace and be able to venture into other online marketing platforms.

Movitas, a Philadelphia-based leading provider of mobile communication, marketing and commerce platform for location-centric businesses such as hotels, resorts and conferences has raised $3 million in VC funding from undisclosed investors.

Movitas will use the investment to deepen the capabilities of its mobile platform to generate new sources of revenue for the travel, tourism and meetings industries.

SeatGeek Inc., a New York-based ticket market forecaster for sports and concert tickets has raised $1 million in Series A funding. Founder Collective led the round, and was joined by NYC Seed.

SeatGeek helps ticket buyers determines whether to buy a ticket immediately or wait for a price drop.

Validity Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of convenient, secure and reliable identity validation solutions raised $12.6 million in Series D funding. Panorama Capital led the round, and was joined by return backers TeleSoft Partners, Crosslink Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and VentureTech Alliance.

This additional funding will enable the company to continue to accelerate its unique technology roadmap and aggressively pursue new market opportunities.

Flipboard, a Palo Alto, California based and first social magazine designed for the iPad raised $10.5 million of Series A funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Index Ventures.

The funding was also used to acquire Ellerdale, a web intelligence technology company that makes data more relevant and valuable.

TopSchool Inc., a Denver-based leading provider of student lifecycle management SaaS for higher education raised $8 million in Series C funding from MK Capital. TopSchool's past backers include Alsop Louie Partners and New World Ventures.

The new capital will be used to fund increased account management support.

FanFeedr, a startup provider of website and mobile application which connects sports fan and provide them with sports feed and news raises $450,000 0f funding. The 5 person company and leaded by Ty Ahmad-Taylor got the funding from their families and friends.

According to Ahmad-Taylor, the fund will be used for infrastructure, operations, and more mundane things like healthcare for the staff. He also estimates the funding will last for 12 months.

BlueSwarm, a social fundraising platform that helps Universities, Non-profits, and political organizations leverage the existing social networks of their supporters to raise money received an $800 thousand funding from Angel investors which includes Harvard Business professor Clayton Christensen.

Since its launch, BlueSwarm has raised more than $172 million for fundraising campaigns, with the vast majority of those funds directed towards political election campaigns.