Floodgate’s Maples claims financial innovation could have a democratizing effect on the business in the next five years, but says details are hard to anticipate. “I just wish I knew what it was right now.”

Austin, Texas-based Mass Relevance has appointed Matt Corey as chief marketing officer. The venture-backed company enables entertainment, media, retail, and manufacturing brands to drive real-time engagement through social curation. Its investors include Austin Ventures, Floodgate and select angel investors. PRESS RELEASE Mass Relevance, the technology leader in social curation and integration, today announced the appointment [...]

Dasient has been acquired by Twitter! Dasient is focused on solving web-scale security problems involving malware and other types of online abuse. Investors in the company include Google Ventures, Radar Partners, Floodgate, and Benhamou Global Ventures. PRESS RELEASE The Dasient team is excited to announce that we have been acquired by Twitter! Effective immediately, we [...]

On Monday, more than 500 outlets reported that Facebook is acquiring the location-based startup Gowalla, which will shutter in January. Gowalla’s team will now work on Facebook’s new Timeline feature. The acquisition was unexpected for several reasons, including that Austin-based Gowalla has been eating Foursquare’s dust for some time. There were also niggling questions over [...]

NewsCred has raised a $4M Series A led by FirstMark Capital with participation from Lerer Ventures, AOL Ventures and Advancit Capital. This is the website’s second institutional round. Last September, it raised a $750K seed round from FLOODGATE, IA Ventures and Naval Ravikant. All existing investors participated in the Series A financing. PRESS RELEASE Later [...]

NewsCred said it raised a $4 million Series A round of funding led by FirstMark Capital and joined by Lerer Ventures, AOL Ventures and Advancit Capital. The company said the funding closed last month. It also said that last September it raised a $750,000 seed round from FLOODGATE, IA Ventures and Naval Ravikant, all of [...]

Zimride has raised $6 million for its online ride-sharing service. Mayfield Fund led the Series A round, with participation from seed backers FLOODGATE and K9 ventures. Zimride allows drivers to sell the empty seats in their car to passengers who need a ride. The company launched in 2007.

Okta said it closed $16.5 million in Series B financing with new investors Greylock Partners and Khosla Ventures joining existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Floodgate.  David Weiden of Khosla Ventures will become a board advisor, and Aneel Bhusri, co-founder of Workday, will become a director. The new funds will fuel the San Francisco company’s growth [...]

Monetate, a Philadelphia-based platform company that provides its marketing customers with testing and targeting services for their Websites, has raised a $15 million Series B round from OpenView Venture Partners. Monetate’s Series A funding of $5.1 million came last December from First Round Capital and Floodgate. PRESS RELEASE: Monetate, the leading provider of testing, targeting, [...]

Lucas Venture Group, Mohr Davidow Ventures, FLOODGATE, Baseline Ventures, Roger McNamee and additional individuals have poured $8 million into Wordnik, a company developing “word navigation systems.” The company also added Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management for Google, to its board. The Series C round brings the company’s total raised to $12.8 million.