Venture capital-backed Kibits Corp. has launched its a micro-social networking app for iPhone and iPod touch.  The company has raised $1 million from Google Ventures, Charles River Ventures, General Catalyst, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, SOSventures, Launch Capital, the CommonAngels Fund and undisclosed angels. Kibits is based in Cambridge, Mass. PRESS RELEASE Kibits Corp. today announced the [...]

Provider of enterprise mobility software, Verivo has secured $17 million in growth capital funding to further boost sales, fuel marketing programs and accelerate its product development roadmap as it expands its global presence. The funding is led by Commonwealth Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including Ascent Venture Partners and Egan-Managed Capital. Verivo was [...]

(Reuters) – Verizon Communications said on Thursday that it had bought privately held software developer CloudSwitch to boost its business services division. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.  CloudSwitch raised $15.42 million over two rounds in 2009 from Atlas Venture, Commonwealth Capital Ventures and Matrix Partners, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). Atlas and [...]

Visible Assets just boosted its visibility. The tracking-technology company just added Richard A. Clarke to its board of directors and is seeking as much as $20 million from VC backers, which would bring its aggregate cash raised to nearly $50 million.

Today, Visible Assets announced Clarke would join its board. The addition of the former senior White House homeland security and counter-terrorism advisor and chairman and CEO of Good Harbor Consulting may help the New Hampshire-based real-time security tracking device company procure more federal contracts.

But Visible Assets’ tracking products

Research in Motion has acquired Tungle, maker of a Web-based meeting schedule tool. Tungle launched its technology in 2009, and has raised money from investors including Commonwealth Capital Ventures, JLA Ventures and Desjardins Venture Capital. Terms of the deal were not released. Tungle is based in Montreal.

youDevise, of London, has agreed to buy Boston-based First Coverage. Financial terms were not announced. The companies provide online services that allow institutional investors to receive short- and long-term trade ideas from their brokerage firms. Commonwealth Capital Ventures of Boston, GrandBanks Capital of Boston, and JLA Ventures of Toronto were original investors of First Coverage.

The widely watched battle between Jeopardy-playing supercomputer Watson and two of the game show’s human champions this week directed national attention to the otherwise relatively obscure corner of the programming world known as natural language processing. But while the limelight was fixed mostly on Watson’s creator, IBM, it’s clear Big Blue isn’t the only one [...]

Does the venture industry require public investors and acquirers to avoid succumbing to speculative bubbles? That’s a debate point that seems to have strong proponents on either side. In the first camp, believers in the magic of innovation and the dynamics of disruptive technology argue that top-tier entrepreneurial companies will prove their worth over time, [...]

Sand 9, a Cambridge, Mass.-based maker of timing oscillator and frequency control technology for the wireless device market, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Commonwealth Capital Ventures led the round, and was joined by return backers Flybridge Capital Partners, General Catalyst Partners and Khosla Ventures. Sand 9 previously raised $8 million.

Alex Laats has joined Commonwealth Capital Ventures as a general partner. He is a former Commonwealth venture partner who most recently was with BBN Technologies, a Commonwealth portfolio company acquired last year by Raytheon.