Today’s early-stage startup funding and acquisitions news:
Commerce
Relay Foods, which instantly conjures up memories of Webvan and other online grocery services of the dot-com bubble era, aims to do online groceries right this time. Now the team has $8.25 million in new funding to make it happen. Investors in the round haven’t been named, but the company is a portfolio company of Battery Ventures and TomorrowVentures, according to VatorNews. The new funding brings Relay Foods’ total backing to $14.25 million.
Social Media
Music discovery app We Are Hunted has confirmed that it was acquired by Twitter, and that its service will be shutting down. The app will be the platform for Twitter’s new music service, set to launch on Friday, according to reports. No more details on the very quiet acquisition have been released. We Are Hunted, which was owned and operated by San Francisco-based Hunted Media, was founded in 2009.
Cloud
CloudCheckr, a suite of tools for analyzing and optimizing Amazon Web Services, has raised $2 million in Series A funding. Investors in the round include Garrison Fund and Genesee Capital. The Rochester, New York-based startup was founded in 2011. More on the funding, from the Rochester Business Journal.
RackWare, which helps enterprises more easily scale all kinds of services in the cloud, has landed $1.8 million in its first funding round. Investors in the Santa Clara-based company remain undisclosed, but the funding is part of a larger offering of $2.67 million, according to VentureBeat.
More funding and acquisitions news today…
LinkedIn buys Pulse for $90M as its publishing ambitions take shape (via Venture Beat)
PayPal buys young startup Iron Pearl to help it acquire more users (via VentureBeat)
Sticky Raises $3M To Improve Ad Accountability With Eye Tracking (via TechCrunch)
Pharma startup gets $30M for genetic cancer treatments (via VentureBeat)
# # #
