Today’s early-stage startup funding and acquisitions news:
Mobile
Recently launched mobile enhanced messaging app MessageMe, which has been in the news lately because Facebook cut off its access to the Social Graph, has wrapped up a $1.9 million Seed funding round. Investors include True Ventures, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, SVAngel, Resolut.vc, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Social+Capital Partnership; along with Angels Brian Pokorny, Hiten Shah, Eric Wu, Rex Ng, Darian Shirazi and Suleman Ali.
Social Media
LinkedIn analytics software startup PeopleLinx announced today the closing of a $3.2 million Series A funding round. The investment in the Philadelphia-based company was led by Osage Venture Partners, Greycroft Partners and MissionOG; with Angels also participating. Check out the company’s blog post about the Series A.
Commerce
Ecommerce may just be the hottest startup sector this year, especially fashion-focused deal and resale sites. Bolstering that notion is today’s Series A funding announcement from France’s Videdressing. Investors include Earlybird Venture Capital, DN Capital, Piton Capital and Generis Capital. The fashion retail site was founded in 2009, previously raised the equivalent of $1.65 million in Seed and Angel funding, and now plans to launch an English version of the site, according to TechCrunch.
Security
Fraud fighting service Sift Science, which was founded by former Google engineers, has landed $4 million in Series A funding to coincide with its launch. The round was led by Union Square Ventures. The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2011 and is focused primarily on fraud detection for ecommerce sites, according to GigaOM.
Additional funding news today:
Sydney-based design platform Canva raises $3 million in Seed funding (details, via TechCrunch).
Singapore and Finland-based Non Stop Games has landed $2.9 million in Seed funding to expand its operations to San Francisco, according to Mobile World Live.
Mobile ad platform Namo Media has secured $1.9 million in Seed funding. Read more about the funding at VentureBeat.
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