By Brian Kovalesky, StartUp Beat Editor
It was a week that began with the east coast of the U.S. picking up and drying out from Hurricane Irene, and it ended with the dour economic news that zero net jobs were added to the economy last quarter. But the tech startup sector continued to churn out new funding and acquisitions news, albeit at a slower pace than previous weeks (chalk that up to a busy news cycle, Irene and the winding down of summer). IBM was particularly active, with two acquisitions in two days. On Wednesday big blue announced that it had picked up intelligence and investigation management software firm i2, and followed it up with the acquisition of risk management analytics company Algorithmics for a whopping $387 million. It may not be that sexy, and it may have different owners and a different form than the past, but IBM continues to be relevant.
Other companies of note the announced new funding included cloud-based employee scheduling service ShiftPlanning’s seed round, $25 million into European social media “platform” Ebuzzing, and Sequoia’s latest bet—on video advertising startup Innovid.
On StartUp Beat this week, we featured three very different and innovative startups: NanoRep, which offers an automated help desk service, Small Bizeo, a new research service for small businesses, and eDrinkIt, offering a local deals service for bars and clubs. Finally, we featured a Q&A with the founder and CEO of PolitiPick, an interesting political “matchmaking” site, ramping up in preparation for the big 2012 election season.
Check back next week for more featured tech startups, funding and acquisitions news, and the results of the first StartUp Beat startup test drive. To all the U.S. readers, have a great Labor Day weekend!
