Funding and Acquisitions Roundup: ‘Groupon for groceries’ gets $2.6 million; Moontoast gets $6 million to monetize social media channels

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By Editor January 5, 2012

Today’s technology funding and acquisitions news roundup…

Early-stage funding announcements today were led by ‘Groupon for groceries’ daily deals site Aisle50, which has closed a $2.6 million funding round. It’s the latest niche entry in the daily deals business, but it may be one of the more useful of the bunch everybody need to shop for groceries (unless you’re wealthy or can convince someone to do it for you) everyone’s life. The company was founded in June of last year.

Social media revenue generator Moontoast (I will add this one to the entries for Best Startup Name of 2012) has told VentureBeat that it has raised a new, $6 million, round of funding. It’s noteworthy because it allows those with significant followers on Facebook, Twitter, etc. to offer products through an integrated interface where followers don’t need to navigate away from the page, according to the company. This integrated approach is a growing trend as brands seek to monetize social media channels (see StartUp Beat’s Q&A Monday with Ecwid, which offers something similar).

Other funding and acquisitions announcements:

Mobile

Synchronoss Acquires Miyowa, Adding Social Networking Capabilities to its Mobility Platform for Connected Devices

Enterprise

Maxymiser Raises $12 M For Its Website Testing & Optimization Solution (via TechCrunch)

IT/Connectivity

Mindspeed Technologies to Acquire Picochip