Time for our irregularly scheduled, data-driven roundup of news from the Bay Area technology world, starting with three separate $25 million items:
$25 million—The amount raised back in August by Redwood City, CA-based Personal Capital, which on Friday launched a financial media site called Daily Capital. The news aggregator collects finance-related content from 500 sources.
$25 million—The damages demanded by Think Computer of Palo Alto in a civil suit filed yesterday against the State of California. Think founder Aaron Greenspan created a digital payment system called Facecash but later shut it down in California after determining that the company wouldn’t be able to get a state license to conduct money transmissions, despite meeting legal net-worth requirements. According to Greenspan, the lawsuit argues that the California Department of Financial Institutions “has violated Think’s rights under the California Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, and that all money transmission laws (including California’s) are unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause.”
$25 million—The minimum price San Francisco- and London-based mobile marketing and advertising company Velti (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VELT]]) expects to pay for Mobile Interactive Group, the UK-based mobile marketing rival it acquired today. Velti said could pay up to an additional $34 million by 2013, depending on Mobile Interactive Group’s performance; with the acquisition, Velti becomes the world’s largest mobile marketing firm.
$21 million—The size of a Series C funding round for Virident, announced November 10. The Milpitas, CA-based startup makes flash-based storage devices and its backers include Globespan Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Cisco Systems, Sequoia Capital, and Artiman Ventures.
$12 million—A Series B financing round for San Francisco-based Kontagent, announced November 10. The maker of social media analytics software for marketers raised the funds from new investor Battery Ventures and existing investors Maverick Capital and Altos Ventures. Battery general partner Roger Lee will join Kontagent’s board.
$12 million—New funding announced today for Belmont, CA-based networking software maker Vyatta. New investor HighBAR Partners led the round, which was joined by existing investors JPMorgan, Arrowpath Venture Partners, and Citrix Systems.
$4 million—A Series A funding round announced today for Boundary, a San Francisco startup offering network monitoring services for companies using public and private cloud computing resources. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round.
$1.3 million—A second round of financing announced today for Ginzametrics, a Mountain View, CA-based startup offering enterprises and medium-sized businesses a Web-based dashboard for search engine optimization. A graduate of the Y Combinator and 500 Startups incubators, Ginzametrics raised the money from 500 Startups, Venture51, and individual investors Jeff Miller, Ullas Naik, Shogo Kawada, Ryota Matsuzaki, Aman Thapar, and Stephen Culp.
$1 million—A seed funding round closed last week for San Francisco-based mobile video game startup MinoMonsters, which completed the Y Combinator incubator program in March 2011. MinoMonsters’ 19-year-old founder Joshua Buckley is the youngest entrepreneur ever to win funding from Andreessen Horowitz, which invested alongside SV Angel, Y Combinator, Yuri Milner, General Catalyst, Ignition Partners, Raymond Tonsing, and Alexis Ohanian. The company plans to launch its first game for the iPhone and iPod touch Dec. 6.
3,800—The number of Walmart stores nationwide where shoppers will be able to use new Walmart iPad and iPhone apps introduced yesterday. The iPhone app lets customers scan QR codes and build shopping lists, while the iPad app lets users browse local Walmart inventory. Both apps were developed by Walmart’s San Bruno, CA-based Walmart Labs operation, profiled here in August.
1,300—The number of photographs in Fotopedia’s new Fotopedia Japan app for iOS devices, released today.
More than 500—The reported number of customers at Chicago-based Model Metrics, which was acquired yesterday by San Francisco-based Salesforce.com for an undisclosed sum. Model Metrics is a consulting firm that helps large companies deploy cloud and mobile-based software, including Salesforce.com.
200—The number of food blogs and recipe sites tapped by Foodily for its new recipe index app, released for the iPhone on November 10. Xconomy profiled Foodily in February.
Undisclosed—The sums Google paid last week to acquire San Francisco-based Apture and Palo Alto-based Katango. Xconomy profiled Apture in June; the company’s service, which will now be discontinued, allowed Web publishers to enhance text with rich media pop-ups. Apture had raised $4.6 million in seed and Series A funding from Clearstone Ventures, VMware CEO Paul Maritz, and former Boston Globe vice president Steve Taylor.
